The card was baby blue with one plain announcement on the cover. "It's a Boy!!!", it read. What kind of Christmas card is this, I wondered as I took the card from my dad. Inside it stated Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given..." Then it all made sense, Christmas is about the baby boy Jesus born so long ago. That one statement puts the focus back where it should be. Maybe we should be holding baby showers instead candlelight services. Christmas is about the King of Kings coming to earth to live among us. Emmanuel, God with us.
About a year ago, I remember hearing about a family who had a Christmas tradition that I found interesting. Every Christmas after the manger scene was put out the Mother would take one of the characters in the scene and hide them around the house. The kids would get up each morning to see which piece of the scene was missing and then go looking for it. Once it was found they could discuss that particular character of the Christmas story. When I opened the Christmas card, it made me think of this because the morning of Christmas the character that was missing was the baby Jesus. What a better way to celebrate Christmas than to have the whole house looking for Jesus. What are you looking for this Christmas? Find time to search for Jesus, it is His birthday after all.
Luke 2:6-7- "And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger...."
Matt. 1:23- "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Assembly Line
We had an assembly line, my family and I. The little holiday gift bags had been stuffed with hot cocoa, candy canes, stickers and gum. We were on a mission to finish these gifts from our Church to be taken down to the 75 teachers and staff at our local elementary school. Everyone was called upon to do their part. The four-year old demonstrated his new found talent of using scissors to cut the ribbon. Mom was tying the ribbon to the bags to secure them closed. The seven-year old found her gift in attaching cards that thanked the recipient for all they do. The last stop in the line was the nine-year old whose job was to curl the ribbon and put the bag into the box that would be used for delivery. A family project that ran smoothly for a time until the youngest got board and decided that it would be more fun to do something else with the ribbon he had been given. The seven year old demonstrated her ability to beat every one else at their job and became inpatient, and the nine year old just knew nobody was doing their job correctly or at least the way she would have done it.
It came to me as I was reflecting on this wonderful family moment that this is the way the Church works sometimes. God has called us out to minister to a lost and dying world. He has given us each a special job, also known as our spiritual gift, in order to fulfill this mission. We come together as a family and begin to minister and then somehow in our worthy goal self inters the picture. One may get bored at doing his seemingly uninteresting or under appreciated job. Another decides that their job is more important than all the rest and yet another may decide that no one knows how to do anything and therefore begins to take over every job for themselves or at the very least tells someone else how to do it. Does your church look like this? Is there people not doing what God has called them to and yet others that are trying to pick up the slack and overdoing it? How about you? Where do you find yourself in the assembly line? Are you doing your part? I tend to be the one that does too much. I see something that needs to be done so I step in and do it causing someone else who has the gift to miss out on the blessing of service.
We are called as Christians to be one body with many members with Christ as our leader, each doing the function he has been called to do. I encourage you to find out what your part is and do it.
Ephesians 4:11-12 "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Read I Corinthians 12
It came to me as I was reflecting on this wonderful family moment that this is the way the Church works sometimes. God has called us out to minister to a lost and dying world. He has given us each a special job, also known as our spiritual gift, in order to fulfill this mission. We come together as a family and begin to minister and then somehow in our worthy goal self inters the picture. One may get bored at doing his seemingly uninteresting or under appreciated job. Another decides that their job is more important than all the rest and yet another may decide that no one knows how to do anything and therefore begins to take over every job for themselves or at the very least tells someone else how to do it. Does your church look like this? Is there people not doing what God has called them to and yet others that are trying to pick up the slack and overdoing it? How about you? Where do you find yourself in the assembly line? Are you doing your part? I tend to be the one that does too much. I see something that needs to be done so I step in and do it causing someone else who has the gift to miss out on the blessing of service.
We are called as Christians to be one body with many members with Christ as our leader, each doing the function he has been called to do. I encourage you to find out what your part is and do it.
Ephesians 4:11-12 "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Read I Corinthians 12
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
