Insignificant?

When you think of Christmas and Jesus you will at some point will think about Bethlehem.  When you think of it, what do you think of and what about that baby that was born there?  I want to take a moment and look at the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem and what that really means.

To start, look with me at Micah 5:2, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity."

The Messiah could have been born anywhere until this prophecy was made and then then only place that the Messiah could be born was in Bethlehem Ephrathah. What we see here is that the ruler who would be the Lord’s representative would arise from the comparatively insignificant town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem actually means House of Bread and Ephrathah actually means fruitful.  Something I find interesting is that when you think about the Messiah being born there and who the Messiah really is, which is the bread of Life and the one who would be the fruitful vine. Ephrathah was an old name for the district in which Bethlehem of Judah lay, in contrast to other Bethlehem’s in the Promised Land because there was more than one but Ephrathah distinguished it from the others.

Bethlehem was, of course, the hometown of David. It is interesting in the fact that David had been the least notable of his all his brothers but God choose to use him and so now we read that Bethlehem was the least honorable among the towns in Judah. The most insignificant son and the most insignificant place would bring forth the most significant person in all of human history. You might think that you are small and insignificant but understand that God uses in mighty and powerful way the small and insignificant. Will you allow God to use you today? Will you avail yourself to him so that He can do something mighty and powerful through you? God wants to use you regardless of how small you might think your faith is!

This ruler must be divine since the verse makes it clear that He had been conducting activities on God’s behalf from long ago, even eternity past which literally means since days of immeasurable time. The New Testament identifies this Ruler as the Messiah, Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem that first Christmas morning. Matthew 2:1 says this, 1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.

This messianic prophecy not only gives the birthplace of Messiah, and therefore assures His humanity, but it also asserts His deity. No mere human could be said to have been carrying out the will of God eternally. The only one is Jesus Christ.

We do well to understand that Jesus was born in Bethlehem but we do miss out if we fail to take the time to really look at the end of this prophecy in Micah 5:2. Look at this phrase: His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. The glorious promise of all of Micah 5:2 was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Micah’s prophetic voice declares that though Jesus came from Bethlehem, He did not begin there but he has been goings forth from eternity past.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End in Revelation 22:13. This means from the very beginning, Jesus was there. Know and understand that there was never a time when the Jesus did not exist. The baby born in Bethlehem always was – he was just being born as a human in Bethlehem but he has always been God!

Think about this some more, before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He existed as the Second Person of the Trinity as we can read here in John 17:5 which says, Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. This passage tells us that there was a relationship of love, fellowship, and shared glory that the Father and the Son shared in eternity past. The name "Jesus" was not known as a name for the Second Person of the Trinity until the angel Gabriel announced it to Mary, but the eternal Son existed before He revealed Himself as Jesus or Emmanuel or God with us.

Just think that long before Bethlehem, Jesus was the creator of all things as Colossians 1:16-17 tells us: For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Before that baby was born in Bethlehem he created everything that exists other than Himself. It is a powerful thought to think that the maker of Universe would come to Earth and be place in hay that he made and in manger made from wood from a tree that he made and then one day he would die on a cross made of wood which he created.

Do you have any thoughts on this today?  Have you ever felt insignificant and God used you?

Going Back?

First thing – I am not too sure why I changed the look of the blog but it was just something I did on a whim.  Let me know what you think about the new look.

Secondly – I bought a new computer the other day. It is something I have saved Christmas money and money from weddings and funerals to buy it.  It is a laptop and I really like it a lot, but as much as I like the thing is this – it can be pretty frustrating.  Why you might ask, well the keyboard is just slightly different than my on my old laptop.  Some times when my fingers go to hit the delete key and they hit the End key.  Sometimes I go to hit the backspace key and I hit the numbers lock.  Things are placed just in a little bit different position and as I said it can be frustrating but I love it and would not want to go back to the old laptop.  To go with that, the old laptop is now being used by my wife.  It was/is frustrating her terribly because it was not the same as her old one which is a much older laptop.  At one point she wanted to just switch back.

This and some other things of recent have all got me thinking a lot about the idea of going back.  You see I have a friend who has essentially gone back.  He has made some really poor choices in life.  I read a message the other day which detailed what choices he has made and I read it through tears.  It is heartbreaking and there is devastation all through the situation.  For me, I remember how things used to be and now things have changed.  I embrace change generally but this is not one of those changes that I will embrace.  I am heartbroken about my friend choosing to go back.  I do not care how frustrating life might be at times I know I do not want to go back because I know that going back means giving up and giving in.  I know that going back means turning my back on the Savior.  I know that going back means I return to the vomit.

Proverbs 26:11 – As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Please pray that my friend returns to the Lord and begins to deal with the devastation he has created by his choices.  Do you have someone you know that I should pray for that has gone back?  What are your thoughts?  Have you ever wanted to go back?

The Crazy Roadside Experience!

Last Thursday my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew were visiting.  Every year they come and visit in the week between Christmas and New Year and we always see a movie and do some shopping.  This year we made the trip to see Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - great movie that I highly recommend – then off to do some shopping.  The men and women split up and each went to stores that they liked and picked up a few things.  We got back together to head home but before that we made one more stop at Ollie’s discount store .  It takes a little over an hour to get home from where we were and my brother and I were going to make homemade pizza for the family once we got home.

We were almost home went I yelled back at my son and my nephew to stop rocking back and forth in the back of the Explorer.  A few moments went by and I yelled back again to stop but this time I turned down the radio when I did.  After yelling back I heard a strange sound.  My brother and I about the same time said “I think we got a flat tire”.  I pulled over into a parking lot of a mechanic shop that was closed and saw the tire was flat.

All seven of us climbed out of the Explorer and I began to get all the stuff out to change the tire.  I got the hand jack and unwound the tire from under the back end.  My brother and I then started the whole process of changing the tire.  It was cold – temps probably in the high teens and the kids and ladies were getting cold so we were trying to go as fast as we could.  The jack stunk and it was taking forever and it had already fallen over once when the car was about two inches up in the air.

I pumped the jack, my brother pumped the jack, and my sister-in-law pumped the jack.  We pumped and pumped and pumped.  In the meantime my daughter calls a friend to come and pick her, my son, and nephew up because they were freezing.  The get picked up and my nephew is freaked out because the young man (our neighbor) had to move six shotguns and shells to the back before everyone could fit in the truck.  He and some friends had been out hunting.  He then drove them back and the were now home and were safe and warm.

Back at the Explorer, we were still pumping the jack.  I was pumping it up and my brother was holding the spare tire and told me we needed a half inch and it would fit on.  We were almost done with this! I pumped one last time and the Explorer shifted and the jack fell over and the car was now on the ground without a tire on it.  I was frustrated and had to count to 10 20 and now try to figure out what to do.

My wife and I are talking and then a name popped into my head of a man in the church and I called him and asked if he had a floor jack and if he could come help.  He said sure and was on his way.  He came well prepared – even with the head of the buck he killed earlier in the day in the bed of the truck – no lie.  We got the floor jack under and pumped up and tire on.

Now his floor jack gets stuck pumped up under my Explorer.  We tried everything but could not get it down.  My friend then tells me to drive off it.  He takes a couple of bags of sand out of the bed of his truck and puts them under the tire and I drive off.  It was exciting because I was not too sure it was going to work and when it did we were all thinking we were ready to get warm.  We thank him profusely and drive the 6 miles home.  We were tired and cold and glad to be home and my brother and I did make pizza for everyone.

No overly spiritual thoughts today but I do want to say that this whole thing was frustrating in many ways but in this craziness I laughed a lot and had a good time with my family.  It was defiantly a memory maker!

There were many blessings in all this.  Here are a few: I saw how blessed I was to have someone I could call and I know that there were about 30 more people I could have called.  I was blessed to have someone come who was creative and a quick thinker to be able to get things done when so many things were going wrong.  I was blessed to have someone I could trust to come and get my children home safely. I was blessed to have a good laugh with my brother.   I could go on and the story does actually and  I will share “the rest of the story” tomorrow.

Any thoughts on our crazy roadside experience?

Aimed or Aimless?

While my dad was here to visit he wanted to hunt so he bought a three day license .  We got 14 inches of snow on the Sunday after Christmas and my days license started on Monday.  Snow where I was born and raised is a normal thing but here it is extraordinary.  So come Monday morning the hunting was not too good because the hunt clubs did not hunt and people were not on the roads going anywhere.  Understanding all this we decided we would go right behind my house to hunt, which is a great spot but it is very thick with brush in places.

I know my way around pretty well back there so I was going to walk through some pretty thick stuff to try to push deer to my father and my son and father-in-law who were sitting in some place where deer cross.   Now while I was walking through the woods everything began to look similar and I had been walking a while.  Now I thought I knew exactly where I was and then I see them.  What do I see?  I see my own tracks in the snow.  I have now walked all this time and circled back around to near where I started.

I then had to regroup and get my bearings again.  Once I got my bearings I was able to move through the thick woods and find the spot that I wanted but it took some real concentration.  I had to be focused on where I wanted to go so that I did not circle back around again.  I could have wondered aimlessly through the woods but I would have really ended up somewhere I did not want to be or somewhere that I did not know where it was.

How often though do we lose our bearings spiritually in life and wonder around aimlessly?  I see too many people wonder though life aimlessly and have no where they are going or where they will end up.  We need to be focused on where we want to go spiritually in life and it is going to take great concentration.

1 Corinthians 9:26 - Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;

How are you going through life?  Are you focused, aimed, and concentrating or are you aimless and wondering?

The Red Rider and Consistency

Every year TBS shows 24 hours of A Christmas Story.  I have to admit that I like the movie for a couple of reasons, for one there are many quotable lines and another reason is that it is a movie that makes me laugh.  If you are familiar with the movie you know that it is all about a boy who wants to get a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas but everyone that he says something to about getting one tells him, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

My 8 year old son got a 20 gauge shotgun for Christmas which we have gone out behind the house to shoot.  He likes the gun a lot but it is not something he can shoot all the time.  Now, he was blessed with a 25 dollar gift card from a couple in our church and so after Christmas he told me he wanted to buy a BB gun with it.  So this past weekend we went to Wal-Mart and he bought a Red Rider BB gun.

Now, the thing is that he could not hit anything when he first started shooting the Red Rider.  He eventually got frustrated and asked for help with shooting it.  You need to understand that I have gone over the basics of shooting several times with him in the past, but he did not listen too well at those times.  This time though, he listened and it clicked with him.  He began to shoot at the cups he had set up on a box out in the yard.  He was hitting them all at about 10 yards and it was impressive.  He then moved them out 20 to 25 yards away and I thought honestly that there was no way he could hit them at that distance but he followed through on everything I told him.  His following through on what he learned had him not only hitting them but he could shoot them consistently.

There is a  lesson that I have learned in this: sometimes takes hearing something several times before it clicks but when it does it makes a difference.  It goes beyond that because no matter what happens, if we are consistent  with what we know to do, we will hit what we are aiming at and we will be alright.  Spiritually this is so clear to me, I need to be consistent in my time with God.  I need to read the  Word of God on a consistent basis and I need to pray consistency and  when I do I will be able to hit what I am aiming at which is a closer walk with Christ.  If I do listen and it does not click then I will be frustrated and struggle.

So let me ask you, are you listening to what you need to?  Are you hitting what you are aiming at?  Spiritually are you reading and  praying like you know you need too?  How is your walk with Christ?  Are you consistent or struggling?

Is It Really Better To Give Than Receive?

Well, let me just say that for me,  the break has been a good thing.  Christmas has been fun with family being here for eight straight days and then a quiet couple of days to start the new year and in it all I have gain some serious stories and seeing God work.

First thing I will share this week has to do with Christmas morning.

Let me say that I am amazed by my children.  Christmas morning my kids come out to the living room where the tree is and all their presents are stacked up.  But instead of them diving into and opening their presents my kids, lead by my 15 year old daughter and my 8 year old son going right along with her, give the gifts that they have to my wife and I as well as their grandparents.  They sit and patiently watch each of us open the presents they have for us and do not whine or complain but enjoy watching others get their gifts.  They forgo the selfish joy of opening up their presents first to have the selfless joy of giving.

My children when it comes to this have really taught me a lesson by their actions and they are a real example of what Jesus teaches:  Acts 20:35 - In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” I think my kids understand that it really is better to give than receive and sometimes to my shame it is something that I need to learn a little bit better and live out a whole lot more.

Is this a lesson that you have learned – that it is better to give than receive - and if you have learned it, how are you living it out?

The True Meaning of Christmas

I was asked to write an Article for the local newspaper on the “True Meaning of Christmas”.  It will be published Christmas day but I am giving you an early read.  It is a culmination of several things I have written over the past several weeks.

The True Meaning of Christmas

This past Sunday our church choir did a great job in presenting a cantata entitled “Joy has Dawned”.  I really enjoyed it because this cantata has such a great message to it, which is the joy of Christmas.  The sad thing is that for many people they have no joy when it comes to Christmas.  Their joy in Christmas has been lost and it has been replaced by the busyness that comes this time of year.  You know the busyness I am talking about:  the baking, the shopping, the wrapping, the visiting, the parties, the giving and receiving of gifts and the list goes on.  In all those things they have lost the joy that is found in the true meaning of Christmas.

I was watching a program on television the other night and one performer said, “Christmas is all about spending time with friends and family”.  Now, while I would say that family and friends are a part of what makes our Christmas season so great, but I also think that we miss out on the real joy of Christmas if we think that it is what it is all about.   Again, do not get me wrong, I see them as major parts of our celebration but the real joy and true meaning of Christmas is not found in family and friends.  So you may what then is the true meaning of Christmas if it is not about gifts, shopping, baking, and spending time with family and friends?

Let me answer that question by sharing with you something  that is found in the Bible.  Most of us know about the Wise Men or the Magi, but do we ever really consider what they were doing?  We often just think about them as some guys from the Far East chasing a star, but  I see much more than that in them.  We can read about them in Matthew 2:1-2  which tells us this about them:  ¹ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ² “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” These magi were not just chasing a star but they were trying to find the one who was born King of the Jews to worship him.  The whole focus of the magi was to worship Jesus.  The whole reason for their long journey was to worship Jesus.  This is the start of the true meaning of Christmas, it starts with worshipping Jesus but it continues on from there.

Later then in Matthew 2:11 we read this about the magi:  ¹¹After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What we see here is that they do find Jesus and they do worship Him once they find Him.  More than just worshipping him when they find Him, we see that they worship Him with their very best.  They worship Him by presenting to Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They worshipped Him with Gold because He was a King and gold represented royalty.  They worshipped Him by giving Frankincense which was used in the temple in worship so they worshipped Him because He was a Priest.  They worshipped Him by giving Him Myrrh which was used for embalming because He was born to die as Savior.  We can see here the true meaning of Christmas which is worshipping Jesus and not just worshipping Jesus but worshipping Him with our very best because He is our King, our Priest, and our Savior.

The best present you could ever receive was wrapped in swaddling cloths at His birth and was born of a virgin.  That little baby grew to be a man and lived a sinless life.  He died on a cross and rose the third day and satisfied the requirements of a Holy God with the sacrifice of His life.  To place your faith and trust in Him is the best gift you could ever receive because that is the gift of eternal life and joy will dawn in you when you accept this gift.  If you have accepted this gift but you have not been living like it, then there is no greater gift you could give yourself  and those you love than recommitting yourself to living for and worshipping Jesus and have your joy restored.

Let us all focus on the true meaning of Christmas which is worshipping Jesus Christ, our Savior, and our Priest, and our King and have the Joy of Christmas restored!

Christmas Plans

This weekend is Christmas (as if you were not aware of that fact).  Our house is going to be bustling with plenty of activity.  We are blessed to have both my wife’s parents and my parents coming.  My wife’s parents will be here Thursday and my parents will be here Friday.  It has been years since my children have had both sets of grandparents with them to open presents on Christmas morning and I am positive that it will be great fun for all of us.

I have five days of vacation left to take before the New Year so I am taking next week off.  I will be hunting with my dad, son, and father in law on Monday. My dad and I and possibly my son will hunt on Tuesday and a little on Wednesday and all that should be a lot of fun.  My brother and his family is coming on Tuesday and so we will enjoy our time together – it is always fun getting together with them.  I am blessed and thankful for how God has blessed me with a great family and a great church family.

Something else that I am looking forward to is the candlelight communion Christmas Eve service.  We all be able to go together as a family and of course I will be leading it but it will be great to have family there.  I am also looking forward to preaching on Sunday Morning with the family all being here.  I have a lot to be looking forward to this Christmas season and praying that Christ is center of it all.

What are your Christmas plans?

Side note – I will not blog after Thursday until the new Year.

REST?

Things have been pretty busy around here and it has had nothing to with it being Christmas time.  Let me give you a bit of a run down.  Two weeks ago on a Monday Night I got a call telling me that a dear woman in the church was ill and in the emergency room asking for me.  I went and spent several hours with her that night and they moved her to ICU later that night.  I went back the next day to visit her and found out that another lady from the church was in ICU and I visited her.  I was back each day to visit both ladies and found out on that Friday morning that the wonderful lady I went to see in the emergency room had passed away.  I was blessed to be able to lead in officiating her funeral which was on a Sunday afternoon.  I then got word that they moved the other lady from the local hospital to a bigger one in a larger city and the day I was going to visit her I got word that she passed away.  I then was blessed to be able to officiate her funeral which was this past Friday.  I then was also blessed to be asked to officiate a wedding this past Saturday.  In the middle of all this I still was doing the normal speaking (Sunday Morning/Evening and Wednesday Night) and sermon prep I do.  Let us just say – it has been a crazy busy but blessed two weeks.  I am honored to have been asked to officiate in all these but I am wore out.

Today was a day off (Monday is my day off) in the truest sense for me.  My kids are off for Christmas break so I got to sleep in today.  When I did get up I was able to move slow and leisurely.  Then my wife, my daughter, my son and I went to lunch and went downtown to do some shopping for some last minute presents.  We ran to several other places and saw some friends while we were out.  We came home and relaxed and ate some dinner. My daughter went and hung out with some friends and my wife and I played board games with my son.  We had a dear friend stop by and give use a card and he and his wife gave my kids cards (Side note:  when you bless me with a gift it is nice but when you think enough to bless my kids it is awesome!  I am sure I speak for most if not all Pastors here.)  As I write this I am just resting and watching Monday Night Football.

It has been a busy time and a blessed time for me but having a day like today where I can just rest and relax is a great thing.  We all need to make sure we are taking time to rest and relax.  Remember that God did take a day to rest and so should we!

Genesis 2:2 - By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Psalm 23:1-2  - The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams. (New Living Translation)

 

Faithfulness….

We have been discussing Mary and her character in the Christmas story and with that let us today consider her quality of faithfulness.  She is as we can see in the story of Christmas is a faithful woman.  She is faithful to God and she is faithful to Joseph even when it does not appear as though she was faithful to him.  Let me challenge you and your faithfulness this morning.

When things get tough in life, do you remain faithful?  Think about all the marriages that end in divorce.  I am too often stuck counseling one person of a marriage that is failing because when things got tough, one part of the couple decided that it was too tough and they decided to leave and not remain faithful and not even try to make it work.  They make that choice and then do not want any counsel as to how they can get back together.  It is a sad thing and my heart breaks for that those in a marriage who want to make things right and work but the other does not.

You do not only see it in marriages but you see it at times with God.  You see people that find themselves in tough spots and so they walk away from God.  They blame God for the choices that they have made and they get angry at God and become in a sense unfaithful to Him.  They walk  from Him and choose other things over Him.  So let me ask you, how faithful are you to God?  When things do not go as planned for you do you get angry and become unfaithful to him?  I challenge you today to begin to look to God even in those times when you do not understand why things are happening.  Remain faithful to Him and you will not be disappointed in the end.

It is amazing to think of the faithfulness of Mary and the desire of my heart is to remain faithful like her but I have to admit:  I have my days and times when I choose other things over God.

What about you?  What do you think about this?