Category: Uncategorized

Dear Friends,

During the past month we have been blessed to hear the familiar sounds of Christmas. Everyone has their own personal favorites – some enjoy the old standards like “Away in a Manger” and “Silent Night;” others turn to songs by Christian contemporary artists such as Amy Grant, Chris Tomlin, and Casting Crowns. Our personal tastes are quite eclectic, so we run the gamut from deeply spiritual songs like “Mary Did You Know” to outlandishly secular tunes like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”

Why does Christmas music fill us with joy? Psychologists report a number of research findings about the immediate psychological and medical benefits of music: increased happiness, less stress, reduced depression symptoms, greater autonomy, and increased competence, hope, and optomism.

For the world at large, it may be that music evokes memories of joy-filled past Christmases. For others, it may be anticipation of a family gathering, a turkey dinner, or a load of gifts. For Christians, it is a time when songs are one way we can express thanks to God for the most amazing gift of all – Jesus.

“Shout to the Lord, all the earth;
break out in praise and sing for joy! ” Psalm 98:4 (NLT)

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.” Psalm 100:1-2 (NRSV)

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” Colossians 3:16

Melodies can be powerful emotional triggers, but lyrics carry the message. The sounds of Christmas have words that remind us of the miraculous birth of our savior. Whether in psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs, when we listen for the message God wants us to hear – we never know what will come to mind.

Recently, we were listening to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” – not exactly a Christian classic- when a couple of new stanzas came to mind.

Grandmas Got run over by a reindeer
Walking home from our house Christmas Eve.
Now She jingles bells with friends in heaven;
Thanks to Jesus Christ whom she believed.

We are sad that she”s not with us,
But her loss we had to face.
Now at Christmastime we focus
On Christ’s birth and on God’s grace.

Christmas is a very difficult time when you have lost friends and loved ones, as we have. We pray that you will find peace and hope this holiday season by focusing on Jesus and by trusting in God’s limitless grace.

Verse for the Week:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

We wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ

Dear Friends,

This week we continue our imaginary encounter with one of the shepherds who was present at the first Christmas. Our objective is to breath new life into the characters who adorn our nativities.

“Through the Eyes of a Shepherd – Part 2”
Hello again, Jedediah here. The last time we spoke, I told you how God had blessed me by letting me be part of the first Christmas. Finding Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus in that humble stable was just the beginning of the story. When Jesus was about two years old, Magi, or wise men, came to Judea asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

Just who were the wise men? Some believe (based on Psalms 72:11, “May all kings fall down before him” ) that they were actually kings from as far away as India or even China. Others believe they were astrologers from either Persia (which is modern day Iran) or Babylon (which is modern day Iraq).

Want to know the real significance of the Magi? This is important. The Magi weren’t even Jews – they were gentiles who had come to worship the King of the Jews. They recognized that Jesus was born a king – not that he would become one –  and they realized that he wasn’t just King of the Jews; he is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

I wish I could have been there when the Magi presented their gifts: gold symbolizing Jesus kingship on earth, frankincense symbolizing his deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of sacrifice.

Later I learned that King Herod, a ruthless ruler who was overseer of Judea had taken the news of Jesus birth as a threat to his rule and wanted to kill the child. He decided to use the Magi to help him find the young Jesus.

By consulting with the chief priests, herod learned that about 700 years earlier the Prophet Micah had foretold that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.   Micah had written (5:2):  “But you, Bethlehem, in the Land of Judah, Are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,  For out of you will come a ruler Who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”

I always liked that verse, particularly the part about Jesus being the shepherd of his people. Take it from me, a shepherd cares for his flock.

if one of my sheep gets lost, I will leave the other ninety-nine and immediately go to find the one that is lost. I have read that Jesus feels the same way about us.

King Herod’s plot was foiled when the Magi were warned in a dream, so they left town by another route rather than returning to King Herod.  Joseph was also warned in a dream, so he took Mary and Jesus and escaped to Egypt…

I, Jedediah, could never imagine the miraculous things that Jesus would do.  I guess it’s true what the scriptures say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Each time I heard of another miracle, I thought back to that tiny baby I has seen in the manger, and wondered why God had been so gracious as to let me share in the miracle of the birth of His son.

At Christmas time, God gives each of you the opportunity to share in the miracle of Jesus birth. May the lights on the tree remind you of the stars that filled the night sky over Bethlehem. May the gifts remind you of the wise men who came to worship the King, and may the tiny baby in your nativity remind you of the greatest gift of all – Jesus.

Christmas Blessings,
Jedediah the Shepherd

Dear Friends,

Each year we listen to the story of the first Christmas. It is so familiar that many of us can mouth the words as the liturgists reads, “And there were shepherds living in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people …‘’ Luke 2:8-10 (NIV)

When you see a nativity scene do you think about the humility and pride of a young Mary, the courage of Joseph, the wonderment of the shepherds, and the awe of the wise men? Or, over the years have the characters in the Christmas story become more symbolic than real to you. Today we encourage you to breathe new life into this season of joy by daring to imagine what it might sound like if you were afforded the opportunity to speak with someone who was actually present at the first Christmas.

Through the Eyes of a Shepherd – Part 1

Let me introduce myself: My name is Jedidiah. I’m not named in the bible, but the name Jedidiah is appropriate because it means ‘God loves’. And truly God loves me because he let me take part in the celebration of the birth of his son.

It all began for me one night in the hills above Bethlehem – out in a field with nothing but the soft glow of a campfire.  It was a clear crisp night. Thousands of stars like diamonds on midnight-blue velvet formed an awe-inspiring canopy. With only a trace of the moon, it was dark, very dark. Then, all of a sudden, the night became like day. A near-blinding flash, and all around us we saw strange beings that glowed like burning phosphorous.

I had heard my rabbi read Scriptures that spoke of angels, but now, I knew I was in the presence of something miraculous.

We shepherds are not easily terrified – we sometimes have to fight off wolves and other predators to protect our flocks of sheep. But, this was truly beyond comprehension.

One of the angels said “Fear Not.”  Then he told us that things the prophets had written about in the Scriptures were about to come to pass;  the promised Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.

As quickly as they had come, the angels were gone, and my friends and I quickly traveled to Bethlehem to see if we could find the child. (In case you wondered, we took the sheep with us.)

In Bethlehem, we found the place where the newborn baby was. With no place else to lay her child, the mother, a sweet teenage girl named Mary, had arranged some clean straw and laid her baby in a cattle feeding trough – a manger.

Can you believe it – Immanuel – God with us – in such a humble setting?

After we had seen Mary, Joseph, and the baby, we went off and told everyone we met about the wonderful things we had seen.

I like the part where Saint Luke wrote that all who heard the shepherds story were “amazed”. Amazed? Most were incredulous.

Are you familiar with the Yiddish word Mishugena? How about foolish or crazy? how would you feel if someone approached you and said, “My shepherd buddies and I were out in a field when an angel appeared and told us about a baby who was the Messiah – the Savior and King of all Mankind? How would you react?

Fortunately, we weren’t the only ones who shared in the miraculous events surrounding the birth of Jesus. When Jesus was about two years old, Magi, or wise men, came to Judea asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

I’ll stop my story for now – more next week; but before I end, I encourage you to think about what the Magi said. They said, “We have come to worship him.”

This Christmas we can experience the full joy of the season by setting aside time each day to come to worship Him.

Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ

 

Dear Friends,

Bonnie and I recently spent the day with a group of GenXers (born 1965-1975). We were saddened to learn how few of them are believers. This morning as I listened to the final verse of the classic song “Long Long Time,” I was moved to wonder, “Does God love the people who reject Him?”

“Cause I’ve done everything I know to try and make you mine And I think I’m gonna love you for a long long time.” – Linda Ronstadt

Think about it; God has done everything he can to have us love Him.

God Prepared a Place for Us. In a December 25, 2014 column in the Wall Street Journal – “Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God” – Eric Metaxas offered evidence that God specifically designed the universe for mankind.

“The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all,” Metaxas reasoned; … “the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?”

The prophet Isaiah wrote about “God’s design” in the 7^th Century BC.

Isaiah 40:26 (NIV) “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

God Made Us. According to a National Geographic article, there are 37.2 trillion cells, 78 organs, 206 bones, and at least 650 skeletal muscles. According to Wikipedia, the human eye can distinguish about 10 million colors. As Psalm 139:13 reminds us, “[God] made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Psalm 139:14 (NLT) “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

God Provides for All
Matthew 5:45  “For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

Corinthians 9:10 “For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.”

The Bible Assures Those Who Love Him of God’s Love.
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT) “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’”

God’s Love is Offered to Everyone. The Bible confirms that he loves the whole world.
John 3:16 (NIV) ^“ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God Wants to Draw Us to Him.
Acts 17-24a  “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of       heaven and earth … he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything  else.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” 

Unfortunately, Many Will Reject God
John 12:47-50a (MSG) “If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection …”

A Long Long Time
Peter 3:9 (NLT) “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some  people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

Back to the question, “Does God love those who reject Him?” As the above Scripture indicates, God is patient, wanting everyone to repent and accept Jesus. One of the ways that He shows His love is by giving everyone the choice to accept or reject His Son. Our job as Christians is not to hypothesize on God’s final judgment. Rather, we should do all we can to be a light to those who remain in darkness – because eternity is a long long time.    Blessings, Your Friends in Christ

1. For an extensive treatise on the argument for design (anthropic principle), see the Reasons to Believe website: http://www.reasons.org/articles/anthropic-principle-a-precise-plan-for-humanity.

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

REI, the outdoor sporting goods retailer, is trying something dramatic this year. Rather than advertising huge “Black Friday” sales, they will be closing their stores the Friday after Thanksgiving, and encouraging their patrons to use that day to get out into nature. You can bet the marketers at REI determined that opting out of the Black Friday sales mayhem won’t hurt their sales; nevertheless, it’s still a refreshing change.

As Christians, we might take a hint from the folks at REI and make the day-after- Thanksgiving our own “Thanks-Showing Day”. Why not opt out of the traditional “Black Friday” madness, and instead, make the day after Thanksgiving a day of service? Rather than following the herd seeking bargains, why not follow our hearts and seek opportunities to serve our fellow man?

But some may ask, “Can’t I serve my fellow man while waiting in line to pay for that super bargain I found at Target?” Of course you can – just target someone in line with you to be good to. The point is that Thanksgiving weekend is an especially appropriate time to use the gifts God has given us to show our thanks to HIM.

“God has also given each of us different gifts to use …  If we can serve others, we should serve. If we can teach, we should teach. If we can encourage others, we should encourage them. If we can give, we should be generous. If we are leaders, we should do our best. If we are good to others, we should do it cheerfully” Romans 6, 8-9 (CEV)

When we use the gifts that God has given us, and when we share the resources he has provided, the result is that praise and thanksgiving is offered to God.

^“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” 2 Corinthians 9:11-12 (NIV)

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

We wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and a God-pleasing Thanks-Showing Day.

Please join with us in a prayer of thanks to God – from whom all blessings flow.

Verse for the week: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.” Romans 12:1b (MES)

Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ