MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thinking about the Christmas Season, I am reminded of Luke’s account of the announcement of the Savior’s birth.

“Glory to God in the highest, & on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14

This great announcement by the angel of the Lord accompanied by a multitude of heavenly host singing to the glory of God did not come to the religious elite nor to the politically powerful but the everyday working class people of Bethlehem. The message is clear and plain; glory is for God and toward others peace and good will. There is no message here of rebellion against oppressors, of conquests, impressing people or acquiring things. Today you can choose to do all to the glory of God and offer peace and good will to all you encounter. It really is up to you how you celebrate and bless others this Christmas.

Thank you for your love and good will toward us.

    Pastor Jay, Jackie & Family

LISTEN

Listening seems to be getting harder and harder today. We have become so comfortable with much speaking and little listening. Attention is on texts and posts, shorthand and acronyms fill our communication making it impersonal and emotionally disconnected from others. We feel free to speak without regard for another’s feelings and yet live where the smallest of things offend people. Listening can do amazing things in our lives and relationships. When God describes listening it involves more than a passing moment.

Isaiah 55:3 “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

He describes bowing or leaning in to focus on listening and when He says come unto me, I believe He means don’t just hear the sounds but listen with your mind and process it with your emotions, in other words listen with your soul and it can change everything. Most of us will benefit greatly when we learn to listen God’s way.

COMPLAINING

Why has complaining become so natural and acceptable today even among Christians? Believers are to be people of hope and grace born in the love and security of our Almighty Father where complaining shows an attitude of “in over our heads” and a spirit of hopelessness. What kind of testimony is that for a child of God? Although it is true that we all struggle sometimes with complaining we need to remind ourselves that it never pleases God.

Numbers 11:1-3 “And when the people complained, it displeased
the LORD: …& the fire of the LORD burnt among them, & consumed them…”

I believe that either the fire of God’s judgment or the consuming bitterness of a complaining spirit will consume a consistently complaining Believer. It is time we learn to trust God and live in hope.

COMPETITIVE SUFFERING

“The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.”

 –Aesop

How many times have you shared a hurt or injury only to have the person respond with a listing of his or her own hurts as though it were some kind of competition? Often, we too unconsciously respond this way with the hope of making a connection or lessening the pain of the person sharing with us. What can happen is this problem of trying to weigh the severity of another’s injury with our own on a scale falsely weighted by our own emotional involvement.

Our compassion, mercy and forgiveness should never include a competition to see who has suffered more. Scripture consistently shows us that we reap what we sew and are measured by the same measurement we use with others.

May God help us all to abound in compassion without a need for prove anything to any one beyond the loving power of the Holy Ghost within us.

 “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7:1-2

The Double Ride by Francis Wallace

Together We Can

While working on the cars we depend on for years, one thing became painfully obvious to me. The smallest thing can keep it from functioning. Many times, it came down to a tiny little wire that the owner had never seen and did not understand its importance. A vehicle can look perfect yet not function because of one part not fulfilling its designed purpose.

1Corinthians 12:12 “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. 25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.”

God gives the Church body every gifted person we will need to accomplish the work He has given us. The truth is that every person He gives He gifts in some particular way that is important and necessary for completing our mission. Divided we cannot function properly neither will we when some of our “parts” (people) neglect to engage and use their God given gifts within the body.

We the Church Need You! 

The Way of Life

We all have those stories from when we were so sure we were right and no one could convince us otherwise! Often, after we “crashed and burned” we still defended our logic even through the “I told you so.” Some things are too important to wait until it’s too late.

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 16:25

All men struggle with the attitude that he or she is right and is under no obligation to listen to parents, leaders or even God. Unfortunately, the nature of man is fallen and destined only to eternal death without outside intervention. Education, culture, and the values of society direct the feelings and the will of most and with all of their learning and experience man’s ways remain the ways of death. He attempts to live forever while continuing on the road of self-destruction. The problem lies not in an unwillingness to change but in an unwillingness to receive instruction and reproof from the One Giver and Sustainer of life, the Truth, the God of the Bible.

 “He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.” Proverbs 10:17

The way of life freely offered to all who will receive instruction and obey. The self-destructive lifestyles and the hopelessness in which many live every day would soon pass if only they would receive and apply the instruction of God. 

CONQUERING FEAR

Fear is natural. Fear wants to take control when we realize that we are not in control, and that our safety and lifestyles are also dependent on decisions of others.

1John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

Scripture shows how to have victory over fear. Although fear is natural, we have a supernatural God that loves us. Upon receiving the gift of salvation, every believer also receives the Holy Spirit of the supernatural God, and He is Love.

Fear twists us until we are tied in knots by terrifying feelings of impending disaster. This fear is torment, anguish, pain and misery; and completely unnecessary!

God says that we do not need to live in fear and His perfect love is the answer to debilitating fear. Yet fear blocks our way to victorious love. So how do we get to the other side of fear where love can obtain victory?
Faith – Knowing and believing the God of love, through Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love.]"