This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
If the house is the church, what can we do to stop the divisions and make our house strong?
Omnipotent Father, open our eyes and hearts. Show us what we must do to make your church strong and unified. Show us how to unite and share your good news with other.
Imagine if you will, Christmas day more than 2000 years ago in the town of Bethlehem. Jesus is born. Do you feel the crisp morning air? Do you smell the animals and the hay? Listen. Do you hear the newborn crying? Can you see Mary, seated on the floor of the stable, holding her tiny son? Can you see her rock back and forth to comfort her babe?
Thirty years later, behold a dry and barren land. The voice of John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness. “Make straight the way for the Lord,” he calls to any who will listen. Now that the crying baby is grown, his cousin John cries for the repentance of his people.
Three years later the mother of Jesus cries. She weeps at the foot of a rugged Roman cross. High above is the broken body of her baby boy. The once tiny babe is grown, and men have nailed him on a cross. She cries for her son as he suffers and dies.
In just a few days, everything changes. Now those bitter tears, those agonizing cries have turned to miraculous cries of joy. The son who was crucified on a cross is no longer in the tomb. He is alive!
As you contemplate these cries, think about your preparations for Christmas. Did you spend many exhausting hours shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning, and baking? Did you cry in anger, frustration, or fatigue?
Through your tears, remember, the babe who cried in the manger is the Lord who died on the cross. He is the same Lord who was resurrected and is alive. He is the same Lord who washes away our sins so that we, too, may become blameless and live forever in heaven.
Once again, we hear crying, the crying of our hearts. We cry, remembering our sins. We cry in repentance, preparing our hearts for His coming in our lives. We cry in grief, remembering His sacrifice. We cry in joy, recognizing His resurrected life in us and anticipating eternity with Him. We cry tears of delight, for we realize that even though all the preparations are not yet finished, we are, finally, ready for Christmas.
May we never overlook the reason for the celebration. In all the busyness and scurrying, let us take time to reflect on the miracle of our Lord’s birth. Let us cry tears of repentance and gratefulness, remembering our greatest Christmas gift. We have worked so hard to prepare for Christmas. May we work just as hard to prepare for His birth and life in our hearts. May this precious life within us cry out joyfully for all to hear.
Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.”
Father, touch hearts and minds, so that all may repent and know Your saving grace.
Hmmm…as we help God’s people, we show Him love.
Wrestling Redemption
A former student of mine was an extremely talented wrestler. As a freshman, he placed second in his state school wrestling tournament. He was very pleased and proud of himself, and, like many young athletes, it went to his head. He became arrogant. During practice his sophomore year, he was unwilling to listen to his coach, thinking he could win on his own. He thought he was good enough that he no longer had to work hard in practice. He made poor choices in the wrestling room. Before he had a chance to qualify for the state tournament again, he made poor choices off the wrestling mat. As a result of these choices, he was no longer able to compete. He lost his dream of a second state championship.
Missing a state tournament cost him dearly and gave him time to regret his poor choices. Fortunately, he got another chance. With a different attitude, he rejoined the wrestling team his junior year, willing to listen to the wise advice of his coach. He was not only willing to work hard in the wrestling room, but he voluntarily worked harder than anyone else. He easily qualified for state, winning his regional.
At state, he stayed focused on the goal of a championship and wrestled well, earning a spot in the finals. In his match for the state title, he was so dominant he pinned his opponent in the first period. His joy at winning the state championship was evident to the thousands of spectators who watched. Repeatedly, he jumped for joy, pumping his fists in the air. He ran to his coach, jumped up and hugged him. Then he ran to an unsuspecting cheerleader, grabbed her in a bear hug, picked her up and swung her around. He exhibited pure, unbridled joy!
The story of the wrestler enables us to better understand God’s redemption. Like the wrestler, we sometimes become arrogant. We think we can handle life by ourselves, instead of trusting God to give us the guidance to develop our God-given talents. Like the wrestler, we make poor choices in life. We refuse to listen to God’s word and instead do what seems right in the eyes of the world.
The wrestler got another chance. He recognized his poor decisions and decided to change his ways, to work hard, and to listen to his coach. Fortunately for us, our God is a God of second chances. No matter what poor choices we’ve made, God is willing to give us another chance. If we are willing to recognize our poor decisions (our sins), and change our ways (repent of our sins), we are given another chance to learn from God, our Coach.
Once the wrestler changed his ways and achieved his goal, he was filled with inexpressible joy. When we repent and seek God’s guidance, He fills us with inexpressible joy. We may not jump up and down (some of us can’t!), but following Him can give us overflowing joy in our lives, no matter what the circumstances. Maybe when we get to heaven we’ll jump up and down for joy, then run, jump up and hug our Coach.
Father, spiritual coach, I am so grateful for your wise advice Thank you for giving me second chances.
I John 1:9 (NIV) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness.”
“When you come and say you are not fit, haven’t got good clothes, haven’t got righteousness enough to be a Christian, remember that Christ will furnish you with the uniform of heaven, and you will be set down at the marriage feast of the Lamb.”
– D.L. Moody
Thank you, Lord, for creating us in your image. Thank you for preparing a place for us and for preparing us for that place.
Photo credit: Emma Sturm
Here’s another commandment. He has forgiven all who accept him. Sounds to me like we are to do the same.
It doesn’t get much clearer than this. We are clearly to love one another with devotion. What are some of the ways you actively seek to honor others above yours
Father, open my eyes and my mind to fresh ways to honors others and serve them in love.
Zechariah 7:9 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.’”
Often we study the bible in passages, or stories that are sectioned off by the editors. This sectioning is helpful to the reader, and helps to identify separate incidents and unify them in the readers’ minds. Sometimes, however, it is important to tie the separate incidents together. Such is the case in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 14. In this chapter are two very familiar stories: One, the beheading of John the Baptist; two, the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. Each of these stories, taken separately, has an important message for every one of us and should be read and studied carefully. But when the stories are tied together, there is yet another message for us in scripture.
Listen to what is said at the end of the story of John’s beheading: “John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus” (Matt. 14:12 NIV). Can you imagine how Jesus must have felt? His cousin, a young man in his early thirties, had just died horrible death. What a gruesome scene that would have been at the palace, with Herodias’s daughter triumphantly carrying John’s bloodied head on a platter to her mother. What grief must have filled Jesus’ heart. Matthew 14:13, the beginning of the next story, hints at his grief: “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” Surely, Jesus desired some time alone at this difficult moment in his young life. But he was not to find his solitude. “Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (13b, 14).
I cannot imagine His depth of compassion for these people. In his time of grief, needing so desperately to be alone, he turned to a large crowd of people, all apparently oblivious to his grief, and during his time of need, he ministered to their needs. He apparently spent much time healing people in the crowd, for as evening approached, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away to buy themselves some food. Once again, we glimpse Jesus’ compassion, for he “replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat’” (16). It would have been perfectly logical for Jesus to send them away so they could eat and he could grieve. But, once again, his compassion was far greater than his needs. He multiplied their meager supplies so that everyone could eat his fill, with twelve basketfuls left over! After everyone had eaten and the leftovers had been gathered up, Jesus sent his disciples across the lake on a boat, dismissed the crowd, and “went up on a mountainside by himself to pray” (23). In his time of grief and fatigue, Jesus turned to his father in prayer and solitude only after the needs of strangers were met.
I don’t know why this illustration of His compassion should surprise and move me. For I know a far greater example of compassion toward the sinful human race. His compassion is so boundless, he not only relinquished his time to mourn for his cousin, He willingly gave up his life, at the very young age of 33, for sinners like you and me.
Lord, Your compassion humbles me. Only God could put others’ needs ahead of His. Only God would take the punishment for a sinful human race. Lord, if only we had even a small measure of compassion, what amazing feats would be accomplished in Your name.
Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.”
Sounds like a command to me. Not an easy one, but what Jesus commands, nevertheless.
Jeus, I want to do what you command. Sometimes that is difficult. Give me the strength and wisdom to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me. Make me more like you.
Growing Our Faith Together 