It's a Boy!!!!

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."

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

More Than Words

A couple of weeks a ago, my husband was just beginning his sermon with a little story about a dad who was having a discussion with his children. He sat them down and asked them which one of them was the most obedient? He prodded a little further and asked, "Who always does everything their mother tells them to?" Immediately my four year old stands up and raises his hand in the air and exclaims "I do! I do!" Of course, this ruined my husbands joke but got plenty of laughs from the congregation. The most humorous part of the story to me is that shortly thereafter; in the heart of the sermon, I could be seen repeatedly telling my son to get up in his chair because he was on the floor trying to crawl under the pew. It was then that I just had to smile as I remembered his "stand up and be counted" declaration of just a few minutes ago. I began to wonder if my heavenly Father views me like this sometimes. I know there have been times that I have responded to him immediately stating adamantly my allegiance to a certain conviction or thought. I have even committed to something in front of others fully expecting to follow through. I desired to do His will and follow after Him but then I would get distracted and stop thinking of my commitment or get discouraged in face of defeat. I am then caught in the very thing I had promised not to do. This is an age old deli ma. Peter struggled with this when he denied Christ three times after declaring he would not be the one to do such a thing a short time before. Did he just get caught up like we do, in life's hardships and struggles and before he knew it, let the guard down and sin was commited? I want to be genuine in my answers and actions for the cause of Christ. As true followers of Christ, may we be doers of the word and not just hearers only. May we realize when we have stood up to be counted and then failed to follow through. May we not fool ourselves into thinking we are more than what we are. The next time you find yourself in Church nodding your head in agreement to something being said, stop a minute, and truly analyze whether this is an issue you have been obedient in with your actions and not just with your declarations.

Matthew 26:35,75- "Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. (V.75)And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly."KJV
James 1:22-"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."KJV

Dog Licking Devotion

"Why do you worship?" During study for my Sunday school lesson this week, this question was asked. I began researching what the meaning of the word worship is and found an interesting illustration I would like to share with you. "The New Strong's Dictionary of Bible Words" says that worship means "to prostrate oneself, to bow down, to fall down flat, to put religion into practice." I went a little further and looked at the Greek and Hebrew words and definitions, when I found this analogy. An example of true worship is like a dog licking his master's hand. What!?! As a non-dog slobber lover all I can say is this picture is not appealing to me in the least, but as I let it sink in, what a great word picture! Dogs lick their Master's hand in complete happiness and contentment, happy for any provision given them. They know their place in relation to their owner. They follow their master with total devotion going everywhere he leads, now THAT IS WORSHIP! Oh, that we would follow Christ with this same sense of devotion, to be totally convinced of His love and provision for our good. To live in happiness and contentment for our God-ordained place in the world so that others would take notice of our complete devotion to our master. I want my worship to be one that puts my selfish will under His divine one. I want to put my religion into practice.
Psalm 95:6-7 "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand."

Are you a consumer or an owner?

I heard this question on a Christian radio station in our area the other day and it keeps invading my thoughts. In my Church and community, am I a consumer or an owner? I began contemplating several questions. What is the difference and responsibilities of being an owner verses being a consumer? What position do I want to be in? Consumer or owner of what exactly? The first step in trying to get a grasp on this concept was to get a proper definition of both, consumer and owner. A consumer is a person who uses goods or services for personal gain. These goods or services are not to be resold to someone else. An owner is designed to provide goods or services to consumers. The owner is the person that is invested. So what do these definitions look like in the Church or community? In the Church, the consumer is the individual who comes to worship service and consumes the service. They take what the Church offers them and give nothing in return; whereas, the owner is invested in the Church, they spend time and money there. The owner may consume the worship service but they then "resale" or give it away to someone else during the week in the form of ministry. Our community has these two types of services as well. We can be involved in our community as just a consumer or choose to become an owner. We can go places and enjoy activities or we can take time to invest something in them. For example, we can go to the little league game and "consume" the activity or we can get involved in serving the team in some way. We as Christians can complain about the way our community has excepted evil but unless we share the love of Christ in it we can not move from being a consumer in it to one that owns and is invested in it.
I believe God wants us to be owners in our Church and community. He does not desire for us to meet with Him so we can keep it all to ourselves. He desires to meet with us so we can in turn minister to others. When our cup is full of Him our joy and love will overflow on to others. Are you a consumer or an owner? It is your choice. Will you move from just receiving to giving in your Church and community?

Matthew 20:28 -"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Acts 20:35-"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Thankful for Walmart

Thankfulness.....I have come to realize lately by watching my four year old son how this Biblical trait is put into action. He is thankful about everything. Last night, as we were walking out of our local Walmart, he yells out as we pass the greeter, "Thank you for the store. I got new shoes." What!?! I can not remember the last time I even thought about being thankful for Walmart! I may be found questioning why they have so many registers if they are not even going to use half of them? I am also prone to comment (while shopping in the evening) about how I feel as though I am constantly in the way of the next pallet of stock rolling through, but, thankful? NO. If I really gave myself a moment to think about it, I should be grateful. I have everything I want at my fingertips and at one place thanks to Walmart and stores like them. I can not even imagine life on the frontier of early America when pre-planning was a must, and everything was ordered and came in on trains. I am thankful that God gave me Trenton for a daily reminder to be thankful. He sees things to thank people for all the time. He is grateful when I roll the window in the car up or if I roll it down. He is thankful when I ask him to take his clothes to his room after I have washed and folded them. We need to all live in this constant state of mind of thankfulness. After all, even when times are bad, we as Christians have an eternal home given to us not through our own merit. We have a God who listens to us even when we consistently do the same offences. We have the Holy Spirit that guides and comforts. We have hope that when we go through tough times God is there with us, and He has a plan for our good. These are only a few of the things that we enjoy as the children of God. God has been good to me. Why can't I let it show a little more?

Psalm 100:4-5-"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
Psalm 126:3 -"The Lord has done great things for us, And we are glad"

Revival, What is it?

What is revival? How would you describe it? Has it ever touched you personally or your church corporately? The basic definition that comes to my mind is to say revival happens when God shows up. Our Church is preparing for revival services to be held in April so the word revival has come up a lot lately. I have begun thinking along these lines and wanted to have a deeper meaning of the word and all it stands for. Our Church leadership, as well as myself, want to see something God-sent happen in our Church and our community. The dictionary defines revival as a restoration to use, acceptance, or activity. To impart new health, vigor or spirit or, my personal favorite, to bring back to life or consciousness. I ran across this scripture today in my devotions and it is a scripture that I like to post on the refrigerator door when I am longing to see God move. In Joshua 3, Israel is getting ready to wage war against the people occupying their promise land. Joshua tells the people before they go to war and see God show up on their behalf they must "Sanctify themselves". Sanctify means to be clean or to make clean. If we want God to show up we have to be made clean. I found a couple of quotes about what revival is that have helped to give me a better grasp of what I am praying God will do through a revival.

Revival is....
"The awakening or quickening of God's people to their true nature and purpose."
Robert Coleman
"The sovereign act of God, in which he restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith, and obedience." Stephen Olford
"An extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results."
Richard Owen Roberts

The word revival is not found in the scripture but the concept is there as early as the children of Israel when they were called to observe three feasts each year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a seven day event where no leaven was to be found anywhere. Getting rid of the leaven in the bread became symbolic of getting rid of the sin in their lives and returning back to a right relationship with God.
Do you have any leaven that needs to be taken out? Do you need restoration back to use or activity? Perhaps, your spiritual life right now is non-existent and you need to be brought back to life. Our relationship with God is the place to start. Before we can have a true revival we must wage war on Satan and get right with God. We must sanctify ourselves or make ourselves clean and obedient so that God can do something great and awesome among us. I do not want to be the one who stands in the way of seeing God move. Do you?

Joshua 3:5 -"And Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.'"
I Corinthians 5:6b-8 -"Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." NKJV