[Devotional] Ready for Christmas

Here's another great devotional whose message, if taken to heart, should help us keep Christmas in proper perspective.

Ready for Christmas
by Sharon Jaynes

Today’s Truth

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Matthew 3:2 NIV)

Friend to Friend

It seems like everywhere you go during the month of December people ask the same question. At the grocery checkout counter--"Are you ready for Christmas?" At the bank drive through window--"Are you ready for Christmas?" At the doctor's office--"Are you ready for Christmas?"

I think the answer to that question depends on how you define "ready." Let me ask you this question: "Are you ready for Jesus?" Now that puts the idea of being ready in a whole different Christmas light, doesn't it?

John the Baptist was sent by God to get the people ready to meet Jesus. Here's what Matthew had to say about him:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight paths for him.'"...

"People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." (Matthew 3:1-3, 5-6).

We don't like the words "repent" or "repentance" very much. They mean "to make a radical change in one's life, to turn and go in the opposite direction from sin (another word we're not too fond of today) to God." Repentance involves an element of grief over the way we have lived apart from God and a decision to run toward the Father. That was God's idea of the way to prepare for Christ's arrival in the book of Matthew, and it is still God's idea of preparing to worship Him today.

Let's reflect for a moment on the words to this poem and then answer the question, "Are you ready for Christmas?"

"Ready for Christmas," she said with a sigh
As she gave a last touch to the gifts piled high...
Then wearily sat for a moment and read
Til soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.
Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream,
"Ready for Christmas, what do you mean?"
She woke with a start and a cry of despair.
"There's so little time and I've still to prepare.
Oh, Father! Forgive me, I see what You mean!
Yes, more than the giving of gifts and a tree.
It's the heart swept clean that He wanted to see,
A heart that is free from bitterness and sin.
So be ready for Christmas - and ready for Him.

Let's Pray

Dear Lord, I want to be ready for Jesus today and everyday. I come to You now in repentance for my sins: my sin of selfishness, stubbornness, and rebellion. I turn from my self-centeredness today and commit to keep my focus on You. God, I cannot do this on my own. I am not able. So I ask that you fill me with the power of Your Holy Spirit Who empowers me to obey. Thank You that You have given me every thing I need for a life of godliness and truth. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now It's Your Turn

What do you think it means to be "ready for Christmas?"

What do you think it means to be ready for Jesus?

Go back and read the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. Notice the difference between the five who were ready and the five who were not. Which group more resembles your readiness for Christ?

[Devotional] Prepare the Way

Here's another Christmas devotional from Bible Gateway.  Enjoy.

Prepare the Way
by Nancy Guthrie

What happens at your house when guests are coming? Do you clean up things that are messy, fix things that are broken, make plans for how you will welcome your visitors? As God prepared to send his Son into the world, he sent someone to get things ready. He had promised to do that, so some people were watching for this special individual.

Two Old Testament prophets (Malachi and Isaiah) had prophesied that before the Messiah would come, God would send a messenger to prepare the people. Malachi wrote, "Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.... Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah" (Malachi 3:1, 4:5). Isaiah had written, "Listen! It's the voice of someone shouting, 'Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!'" (Isaiah 40:3). Mark recorded, "This messenger was John the Baptist" (Mark 1:4). Luke wrote, "He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly" (Luke 1:17).

John the Baptist was the person God sent to prepare his people for Jesus. It wasn't food or beds that needed to be prepared; it was hearts. It was John's mission to call people to repent--to leave behind their sin and turn back to God. John prepared the people for Jesus by helping them get their hearts ready to receive him.

God knows our hearts need to be prepared to receive Jesus. During December we tend to get very busy preparing for Christmas with parties and programs and presents. But the most important preparation we need to make is to prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus in a fresh, new way. We do this by cleaning out the clutter of sinful attitudes and selfishness so that we look expectantly for Jesus to make himself known to us.

Prayer

Right now, Lord Jesus, our hearts are being prepared to receive you. Show us what must be removed, the sin that must be repented of, so that our hearts can fully receive you.

[Devotional] The Joy of Giving

Here's another one of those devotionals that I first mentioned in my previous post.  Be blessed.

The Joy of Giving
by Mary Southerland

Today’s Truth

2 Corinthians 9:7 (NCV): "Each one should give as you have decided in your heart to give. You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily."

Friend to Friend

One of my favorite authors, Richard Foster, writes, "Giving with glad and generous hearts has a way of routing out the tough old miser within us. Even the poor need to know that they can give. Just the very act of letting go of money, or some other treasure, does something within us. It destroys the demon greed." God loves to see us give for no other reason than the joy of giving.

The true story is told of a self-made millionaire who had lived in New York City his entire life. Born and raised in a ghetto, he worked hard and achieved much. Anyone who knew this man would testify to the fact that he was generous--to a fault, some would say. One year, the man was disturbed by an attitude of selfishness and greed that seemed to pervade the Christmas holiday season and everyone around him. Not one to condemn, the millionaire decided that since he had been given so much, it was up to him to do his part in combating greed and came up with an unusual plan. Wearing a disguise, this man stuffed his pockets with $100 dollar bills and set out for a walk on the streets of New York City. When he saw someone in need, he whipped out one of the bills, pressed it into that person's hands and with a "Merry Christmas," made his way down the street. "It was the most wonderful part of my holiday season," the man reported, and he has been doing it every since.

God is much more interested in our motive for giving than in the gift itself. If that motive is tainted with greed, the gift simply does not count. A powerful way to guard against greed is to choose joy over greed. Giving with joy is Kingdom giving! Before you give, ask yourself, "What’s in it for me?" If the answer is "nothing," then go ahead and give the gift.

When our children were in middle school, we owned what I affectionately called a "Mini-Gym." It was a set of bar bells, a weight lifting bench and a few free weights. Both Jered and Danna loved their "gym" and used it almost every day. When Christmas rolled around, we learned that two of their good friends, Jeff and Jeremy, were not going to have much of a Christmas because their dad had lost his job. Jered came up with a plan. "Mom," he said, "Danna and I have talked about it. We think that Jeff and Jeremy would love to have the gym. But we don’t want them to know we gave it to them, because they might be embarrassed. What do you think?" I thought I was in the presence of two joyful givers and quickly joined them in their plan.

A few days before Christmas, Jered and I took the gym apart and loaded it in our car while Danna found a huge red bow. Together, we made a sign that read, "Merry Christmas! We love you!" Danna blew up balloons while Jered dug out some Christmas lights. We enlisted the help of a neighbor who had a key to our friend’s house and joined in the fun by agreeing to find out when the coast was clear, unlocking the back door and letting us in. At the designated time, off we went, laughing and singing Christmas carols. We parked down the street until the neighbor called, giggling, to let us know she was all set. Once we were inside, we raced to assemble the gym, post the sign, tie the balloons and tape the lights to the front door, leading our friends to their Christmas surprise on the back porch. We then high-tailed it home as if the FBI was hot on our trail! The neighbor reported that just minutes after the boys returned, she heard shouting and "whooping and hollering." The joy of that Christmas still lingers today. Greed doesn’t hold a candle to joyful giving!

Greed is never satisfied and never at rest. There is always something more to be gained and someone else to outdo. Take sheep, for example. Sheep are dumb enough to eat until they are sick. They simply do not know when to stop. A heart that is filled with greed behaves the same way. I am afraid our heart motives are all too frequently self-serving when it comes to giving. Our pride is at stake, so we give to impress others. Perhaps, we give out of fear and guilt, hoping to buy God's forgiveness from our sin. People are watching, so we give in order to gain their approval. What is the solution? Giving! Giving is a powerfully effective deterrent to greed when we give for no other reason than the joy of giving.

Proverbs 11:24-25: "Some people give much but get back even more. Others don’t give what they should and end up poor. Whoever gives to others will get richer; those who help others will themselves be helped."

I once read an article that described three types of givers. The first kind of giver is the "flint." To get anything out of a flint, you have to hammer it, and even then, you only get chips and sparks. A second kind of giver is the "sponge." You have to squeeze it and the more pressure you use, the more you will get. The third kind of giver is the honeycomb. It just overflows. What kind of giver are you? Experience the joy of Christmas when you experience the joy of giving. Merry Christmas!

Let's Pray

Father, thank You for all You have given me. Help me to be the kind of giver that points people to You. I choose against my pride or any wrong motive for giving Christmas gifts this year. I choose to keep my eyes on You and my glance on the world. I love you! In Jesus' name, amen.

Now It's Your Turn

We make a living by what we get out of life, but we make a life by what we give and how we give it. Beecher wrote, "No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. The heart makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has." How do these words relate to your life this Christmas?

Take inventory of your "stuff." Make an actual list. Then set aside a time of prayer and solitude during which you give each one to God.

Consider giving an anonymous gift and recruit your family to help.

[Devotional] I am the Lord's Servant

I recently subscribed to an e-mail newsletter from Bible Gateway that focuses on the Advent season.  Here is one I particularly enjoyed.

I am the Lord's Servant
by Nancy Guthrie

It's hard to imagine how frightening it must have been for teenage Mary to see an angel and hear him speaking to her. The Bible says that "Gabriel appeared to her and said, 'Greetings, favored women! The Lord is with you!' Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 'Don't be afraid, Mary,' the angel told her, 'for you have found favor with God!'" (Luke 1:28-30). We can't help but wonder what the angel looked like and what he sounded like.

As frightening as it must have been to see and hear an angel speaking to her, it must have been even more frightening for Mary to process what the angel was telling her--that she was going to become pregnant, even though she had never been intimate with a man. This would be a scandal in her village. Everyone would whisper about her. She would be shunned and perhaps sent away by her fiance, Joseph, because he would think she had been unfaithful to him. And yet, even though she probably had a million questions and concerns, Mary responded to the angel by welcoming whatever God wanted to do. She said, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true" (Luke 1:38). In a sense she said to God, "I'm yours. You can do anything you want with me," even though she must have known that this situation would be very hard for her, for Joseph, and for her whole family.

It's easy to label what we consider "good things" in our lives as gifts from God and to welcome them with gratitude. But when difficult things happen, we don't look at them as part of God's good plan for us. Mary's example shows us we can also welcome those things we would not necessarily label "good," confident that God's gifts sometimes come in perplexing and even painful packages. When we belong to God, we know he will use whatever he allows into our lives for good. Somehow, in God's hands, these things also become gifts of his grace toward us.

It takes faith--faith to rest in who God is and his love for us; faith to be confident that he is doing something good in and through our difficult circumstances--to see the hard things in our lives as gifts of God's grace.

Prayer

God, give us faith to surrender ourselves to you even in the hard places of life. We want to be your servants. We believe that anything you ask of us will be good and right because you love us. Fill us with faith to trust you with whatever you ask of us.

[Video] Why Christmas is Horrible

 The following is a video from Mark Brown that I watched last night.  Brown states this about the video.

"For some people, Christmas is a time of loneliness, financial hardship and depression. If this is you, watch this video, if it isn't, share this video."

I'll add that everyone should watch this video because you never know when tragedy will strike and it's good to have these promises in mind when it does.

Apples, Milk, and Fire Hoses

Courtesy designtaxi.com

How Apple's latest software update reminded me about how we should talk with people.

As many of you know, Apple recently released it's new operating system, iOS 7, to the general public, and those familiar with Apple's style will notice a difference.  Gone are much of the three-dimensional images, wood, leather, felt etc.  A recent post on the website Fast Company explains much of the reasoning behind the change.  A quote from one of their sources,

"Our culture has changed. We don’t need translation of the digital medium in mechanical real-life terms. It’s an old-fashioned paradigm."

To put it in other terms, we don't need a calendar that looks like a physical calendar to know how to use the program.  We don't need that bridge to understand a no longer unfamiliar concept.  Those who want to share the gospel with other people need to implement a similar methodology.

In the apostle Paul's first letter to the believers in Corinth, he stated,

"Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?" 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT

Paul spoke to them in certain terms because they would have been unable to understand more advanced concepts.  In doing this, he followed the same line as Jesus with His disciples when He said

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." John 16:12-14 NIV

Now where the rubber meets the road is how do we put this principle into practice in our own lives.  We need to have discernment as to how much people can bear; how much can they understand.  We don't want others to have to drink out of the proverbial fire hose. A key to doing this is simply to relax a bit when communicating with others.  I know from personal experience that learning something new and interesting can be very exciting, and I want to transmit as much information as quickly as possible.  However, not everyone wants to hear it and even those who do want to hear it can be overwhelmed if it involves concepts that they don't understand.

So next time you want to share something with others: stop, pray, and then share.  The results may surprise you.

An Unbalanced Diet

Courtesy darrfalls.blogspot.com

We miss out on a lot if our spiritual diet is unbalanced.

I recently had a conversation with my wife about social media and it got me thinking.  Depending on what friends one has on Facebook you can read a lot of different things.  For example, my friends list and the pages I like tend to be religious in nature and therefore my news feed tends to contain mainly religious items: Bible verses, quotations from religious authors, and of course, religious memes.  One could get a lot of religious/inspirational reading done by going through my feed.  Which is all well and good, but if all your religious/inspirational reading is done on places such as facebook and twitter, then we would miss out on a lot.  We could also end up suffering the consequences like Rehoboam.

Rehoboam's Folly

You may not know who Rehoboam was, but I'm pretty sure you've heard of his father, Solomon.  Rehoboam became king of Israel after his father's death.  Long story short, Rehoboam took the advice from only the people he chose, and he chose the wrong people.  As a result, he lost the allegiance of eleven of the twelve tribes, and divided the kingdom.  While we may not suffer such dramatic consequences as he did, we suffer just the same.  We suffer from spiritual malnutrition.

Spiritual Malnutrition

When we get our spiritual insight primarily from facebook posts, twitter feeds, etc., we snack instead of eating meals. When we snack, we seldom get full, or the nutrition we need.  Leaving us empty and poorly equipped for proper spiritual growth. What we need are full meals.

Keeping with the food analogy when we rely upon other people for our spiritual nutrition, it is similar to eating processed food.  Sure it may taste good, but processed food is nutritionally unbalanced; often containing excess of one ingredient or another.  What we read/eat may contain too much law or not enough love, or they may be tainted with artificial ingredients (human opinions).  The best way to manage our spiritual diet is the same as the best way  to manage our physical diet.  Prepare it ourselves with a variety of natural ingredients.

The Best Diet

The best spiritual diet comes straight from the Bible.  The more we study it, the more widely we read it, the better off we will be.  Take time to read the entire Bible.  I know that may sound intimidating because of the size of the book, but as the saying goes, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.  Many Bible reading plans exist that enable the reader to read the entire Bible in one year, often with only reading about 15-20 minutes a day.  Why read the entire Bible?  By doing so, it allows us to make the connections between the parts of the Bible.  To read only one part of the Bible is like eating only one kind of food, making us malnourished.

Your Part

I've given you enough to chew on for now (pun intended).   Now go and try it for yourself. 

Unfinished Business

Courtesy wikipedia.com

There is nothing wrong with leaving a task unfinished.

This post continues along a similar theme as my last one in which I paused to consider accomplishing small tasks in favor of large ones.  Today I'm taking it one step further in asking you to consider accomplishing no task.  That's right, I'm talking about giving up.

A long time ago, I came across a book about Michelangelo.  My favorite sculpture has to be the one picture above in which Mary cradles a recently crucified Jesus on her lap.  I marveled at how the folds and wrinkles in the fabric looked like actual folds and wrinkles in fabric and not in marble.  Then further along in the book I discovered something else altogether.  A collection of photographs of his many unfinished sculptures.  Yes, even someone as talented as Michelangelo gave up on a project once in awhile.

Michelangelo could have thought about all the time that he put into those sculptures, and finished them in order not to let that time go to waste, but he did not think that way.  The sculptures didn't go the way he wanted so he gave up on them and moved on to something else.  We can get a lot more accomplished if we follow a similar route.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about giving up every time a project gets challenging.  However, I'm sure if we took a long, honest look at the projects we currently have on our "Unfinished Business" list, some of them could be erased with no real loss to our quality of life.

Let's face facts.  We only have a finite amount of time and ability to accomplish what we want/need to accomplish.  By giving up on some of the unfinished business in our lives it makes space to focus on other tasks and relationships.  The most important of these of course being our relationship with God.  We can rest from our unfinished business knowing that He always finishes what He starts, and what He finishes are always masterpieces.

Take it Easy

Courtesy rushtheiceberg.com

Sometimes the harder we try, the less we get done.

I decided recently that I wanted to get back to posting regularly on this blog.  I started writing, but kept getting stuck.  I got frustrated because I would start writing, but was getting nothing but unfinished drafts.  Then I figured out a solution to my problem.

I was reading a post on one of the blogs that I follow, and was struck by its sheer simplicity.  I realized that I was trying so hard to get things just right that I wasn't getting anything accomplished.  To use a baseball analogy, I was trying too hard to hit a home run, and kept striking out.

This principle can be applied to many things in life.  In our striving for excellence, we often think that excellence equals perfection which causes us undue stress.  That stress gets in the way of us accomplishing anything (esp. if its a task that involves creative thinking), and nothing gets done.  So while its good  to swing for fences, sometimes we need to relax and focus on simply hitting the ball.

A Matter of Life and Death

Courtesy aviancaflight52.com

Sometimes saying the right thing can make a difference between life and death.

On January 25, 1980 Avianca Flight 52 crashed into Cove Neck, Long Island because it ran out of fuel after a series of delays related to the weather.  One of the main reasons the flight ran out of fuel was that in its communication with the air traffic controllers the Avianca crew used the word "priority" instead of  "emergency".  The air traffic controllers had no idea as to the seriousness of the situation, and the airliner crashed into the countryside killing 73 of the 158 people on board.

Words Matter

This situation came to mind when I was thinking about how the words we use not only can make concept easier or more difficult to understand, but also can affect the way we live our lives.  I'm referring mainly to words that have similar, but not exactly the same, meanings.  Regarding the explanation of concepts, the word difficult is better than hard because hard has a broad set of definitions while difficult has a more narrow set.  In regards to how a word can affect the way in which we live our lives if we view problems as challenges then it frames the situation in a more positive light.

Spinning Until We're Sick

When typing that last sentence I couldn't help but think about what are commonly referred to as "spin doctors".  A spin doctor's job involves putting things into a more positive light than they truly are to help maintain the public image of a person or corporation.  I'm not talking about becoming like that where like a little child on a playground merry-go-round we want to spin faster and faster until we can't see straight and ultimately fall flat on our face (or worse yet, vomit, then fall).  I would classify such language as a euphemism where we make things sound nicer than reality.  What I am encouraging people to do is instead of making things seem better than they are, simply don't make them worse.

Making Canyons out of Culverts

Let's face facts, life on this earth can be quite discouraging.  To simply gloss over reality is not only annoying to most people, but also can be dangerous to our well-being because if everything is sunshine and rainbows then we won't seek help for the various situations in which we find ourselves.  In addition, "seeing the bright side of things" can be too much to ask of many people.  So as a first step, let's simply not to make things seem worse than they need to be.  However, as you probably expect, there is much more to it than that.

Speaking Faith

The 19th century Christian author E.G. White once wrote the following words.

"Take the word of Christ as your assurance. Has He not invited you to come unto Him? Never allow yourself to talk in a hopeless, discouraged way. If you do you will lose much. By looking at appearances and complaining when difficulties and pressure come, you give evidence of a sickly, enfeebled faith. Talk and act as if your faith was invincible. The Lord is rich in resources; He owns the world. Look heavenward in faith. Look to Him who has light and power and efficiency."  Christ's Object Lessons pg. 146

 "By the exercise of living faith you can separate from everything that is not in accordance with the mind of God, and thus bring heaven into your life here below. Doing this, you will have sunshine at every step. When the enemy seeks to enshroud the soul with darkness, sing faith and talk faith, and you will find that you have sung and talked yourself into the light"  Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students pg. 233

That second quotation hit me especially hard (in a good way).  If we sing and talk faith, we can sing and talk ourselves out of the darkness and into the light, or from death unto life.  So let's make our words agents of life for ourselves and for all who will listen to us.

How Much Do We Care?

Courtesy latimes.com

Many people want those who do wrong to be brought to justice, but often neglect the greater need of those same people being brought to Jesus.

A friend of mine recently said in reference to the Christopher Dorner manhunt that he hopes that Dorner is brought to justice, but more importantly that he is brought to Jesus.  This statement carries some weight to it given that this friend has been a part of the law enforcement community for about eight years.  This poses an important question in my mind.  How much do we truly care about people who we deem to have gone too far?

In his manifesto, Dorner wrote that he believes the Bible to be mainly a work of fiction.  While I strongly disagree with that sentiment, in a way I can understand it.  Many supposed followers of Christ and the Bible do not follow His teachings found therein. Among other wrongs, Christians often fail to be positive examples for those who do not profess to follow Christ.  In simple terms, we do not practice what we preach.  We discriminate, we oppress, we stand idly by as injustice upon injustice is heaped upon those we deem less fortunate than ourselves.

God is not happy with injustice, and His followers should follow suit. We need to stand up for those who are being discriminated against.  We should seek to correct and prevent the wrongs caused by evil men and women, and this correction and prevention begins with us.  Instead of seeking revenge against those who have wronged us we should seek reconciliation.  If they reject our efforts, then at least we did our part.  Often this act of kindness may not only diffuse the current situation, but also prevent future ones.

We often view people such as Christopher Dorner who commit terrible crimes and reject Christianity as being too bad for God to love.   However, that could not be further from the truth because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  As the saying goes, "While there is breath, there is hope."  Let us not give up on others for God has not given up on us.