“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
Amidst the twinkling lights, baking, and shopping, I pray we follow our Father’s example and give the most important gift: love. I hope this blesses you as much as it did me. Merry Christmas.
Hello Friends,
I’m unable to type much right now, so I thought I’d re-post this from December 2013. I pray the Lord blesses each of you with the continual gift of knowing and walking in His love and the fruitfulness of sharing Jesus through the spiritual gifts given especially to you.
***
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
They say the best things in life are free. Yet every year the day after Thanksgiving (well, now you barely have time to eat your last bite of pumpkin pie) the stores open and people rush the gates like race horses at the Kentucky Derby. Even now there are people everywhere still scrambling to find that last perfect present or two.
I wonder if we really do believe the best things in life are free. All the frenzied waving of credit cards is really just a distraction, a way to make Christmas mean something when we fail to make it about Christ. And it’s hard to do that when He hasn’t been Lord the other 364 days a year.
Thanksgiving Day I was in the kitchen, as I am every Thanksgiving, going about the cooking I’ve now gotten down to a science, when I stole a moment to take a peek through our kitchen window which faces the front of our house. The streets were lined with cars that had brought family and friends to spend Thanksgiving with so many neighbors. It made me feel just a little bit lonely.
I love my family, my husband and our two sons whom we’re still blessed to have at home, but we have no extended family we’re able to spend the holidays with.
I didn’t have much of a family life growing up, so it was always my dream to have huge family gatherings at the holidays, the house full of laughing, eating, cooking, and a dozen different conversations going on a once, catching each other up on our lives, our victories and our defeats, encouraging and loving each other, so that when the day was done we’d be as full in our hearts as we were in our bellies.
A long time ago, though, I accepted the house would be a little less full and a little more quiet. That it would be just the four of us, and I’m happy with that. Still, I couldn’t help but peer out the window a time or two (maybe three) more and caught a glimpse of all those cars in front of so many other houses.
Instead I’ve filled the holidays with one of the few talents I did have: mad baking skills. I started baking when my kids were tiny and we didn’t have enough money for store-bought birthday cakes. I started collecting cookbooks and practicing the art of cake making, frosting, and decorating. I bought all kinds of frosting tips and every food coloring in the rainbow. I practiced my royal icing roses. My mouth full of sweet teeth had me quickly expanding to almost any kind of cookie, pastry and dessert you can think of.
And when the holidays rolled around I’d have a field day. I’d stock up on flour and sugar and butter and chocolate and peppermint candies. I’d pore through my hundreds of recipes of Christmas cookies and delectable desserts and wonder which to bake first. Wedding cookies or Chocolate Peppermint Pretzels? And there are always cream cheese frostinged cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.
But now I have health issues that make it almost impossible to enjoy eating sugar or any kind of carbohydrate. Oh I can eat it, I just have to be willing to face the consequences when I do. My family is trying to eat healthier, too. So every year I’ve baked less and less, and this year I haven’t done any. Yet we are inundated with messages that for Christmas to be Christmas we should indulge in one sugar-laced treat after another. But since I can’t it’s just one more thing that can make me feel like I’m somehow outside the party peering in.
There are other things, too, that getting older make celebrating Christmas the way I’d like very difficult or impossible.
Sometimes, when we’ve been stripped away of so much that the world says we must have and do to be happy, God is able to show us what’s most important. To see what the best things in life really are.
No matter what gifts I’ve been given, the best by far will always be my salvation. Ultimately, of course, I am forever indebted to Christ for dying for me, and to the Holy Spirit for pursuing me, opening my eyes, and revealing to me my need for a Savior. Regardless of what I am not able to have in this life, eternity will be filled with family and feasting. Relationships will be restored and my body will be perfect. This life is only temporary. Eternity’s forever. And I’m looking forward to it!
I would not have that hope if it weren’t for the willingness of some to offer prayers and the honest teaching of God’s Word. Those were gifts to me, gifts I could never afford. Gifts that are free.
And now I, and many of you, are in the position to be able to offer those gifts to others. No credit card needed. Some may not open their gift of salvation right away, perhaps for years. But even seeds are gifts. Water is a gift.
So maybe it’s time to slow down and allow those things the world says we must have in order to have Christmas be stripped away. Maybe it’s time to give a gift that would last for eternity. Maybe you’re a seed-bearer, or a waterer. Maybe you’re a harvester.
Wherever God would have you be in the process, give a gift of your gifts. Your spiritual gifts have been given to you to not only encourage fellow believers, but to bring truth to unbelievers. There is no better gift than the truth that leads to salvation.
One phrase that I hear over and over every Christmas season that’s become a pet peeve of mine, is when someone uses the word Christmas in place of the word gifts. “She won’t be able to give her kids Christmas.” “They won’t have a Christmas.”
Even the Grinch came to understand Christmas when he’d stripped the Whos of all he thought would make them happy, yet their joy on Christmas morning was undeterred and unrestrained.
“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch, “That I simply MUST hear!”
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn’t sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!”
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”
A little bit more indeed. A lot more. It means the birth of our precious Savior who came to give us the best gift of all.
So if you’re struggling this year, I hope you’ll take heart,
And know that the life we live here is only the start!
Christ was born in a stable for you and for me
And He died to give us eternity.
So wherever you are, whatever you do
Remember that Jesus, yes Jesus loves you!
He gave you salvation and that’s the key
To knowing the best thing in life is free.
So remember that Christmas doesn’t come from a mart
It comes when we let JESUS fill up our heart!
So store up for yourselves treasures in heaven
Give the gift of telling others how they can be forgiven!
Merry Christmas and God bless you!
Be aware! God’s Word says that in the end times, “because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:12
The moment we realize our faith has become cold, or worse, lukewarm, we have a remedy in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is able to light the fire in our hearts again if we’ll only call on Him.
Don’t let our love grow cold
I’m calling out light the fire again
Don’t let our vision die
I’m calling out light the fire again
You know my heart my deeds
I’m calling out light the fire again
I need Your discipline
I’m calling out light the fire again
I am here to buy gold refined in the fire
Naked and poor
Wretched and blind I come
Clothe me in white
So I won’t be ashamed
Lord light the fire again
Light the fire again, yes
Oh yeah
Don’t let our love grow cold
I’m calling out light the fire again
Don’t let our vision die
I’m calling out light the fire again
You know my heart my deeds
I’m calling out light the fire again
I need Your discipline
I’m calling out light the fire again
I am here to buy gold refined in the fire
Naked and poor
Wretched and blind I come
Clothe me in white
So I won’t be ashamed
Lord light the fire again
Lord light the fire again
Lord light the fire again
Lord light the fire again
Lord light the fire again
Hello Friends. Today I want to share with you two things.
First, a post written by long-time fellow blogger, Tim Sherfy, at Even If i Walk Alone. The Lord put this impassioned message on his heart – Love Like Jesus – and asked me if I would share it.
We have so many distractions today, and the Lord’s message to us is remember we are His, and remember our purpose – to know God and make Him known. Life is short. What a privilege we have to make it count for Him, and lay up our treasures in heaven.
Second, Tim has started a campaign with illumiNations to raise money for Bible translation. He says “My goal is to raise $30,765 which is enough to translate the book of John for a people group that currently does not have the Scriptures in their language. There are over 3 billion people in the world who have never heard the name of Jesus, and 3,778 languages that do not yet have a Scripture translation. That breaks my heart.”
That really should break all our hearts. If you feel led, please donate to this campaign that could change hearts, lives, and whole communities. And please share Tim’s article and campaign with your friends.
And never forget – Jesus loves you!
God bless!
Many of us probably woke up this morning wondering what kind of craziness we’d hear about today. So much has changed in the last year, or maybe it’s just being revealed.
We see anger, judgment, self-righteousness, violence, hatred, and so much more running rampant, and the basis for all these is one lie or another, but all stemming from the lie that Jesus is not the Christ, and there is no judgment or salvation in Him.
Jesus stated that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44b)
Paul referred to the devil as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience…” (Eph. 2:2b)
The Holy Spirit lives within God’s children, but satan’s domain is without. We see him at work more and more every day, lying and using others to spread lies.
Though 1 John was written centuries ago, its author warned “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”
The word antichrist, of course, means opposite, or an opponent of the Messiah. While we don’t know yet who the antichrist will be, the spirit of the antichrist has always been here and works in and through those who don’t believe in Christ as Lord.
As we watch the world spiral more and more out of control, and the enemy work harder to take as many with him while he can, we know these are the beginnings, the continuation, of birth pains.
Jesus said no one knows when the day or hour of His coming will be, but we are to be ready, mind, body, and spirit.
You might have read that Israeli archeologists have just uncovered dozens of new fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in the Judean Desert. They include Greek translations of the Old Testament books of Nahum and Zechariah.
Nahum and Zechariah were both prophets, and both are books of prophecy.
Nahum is a short three-chapter book about his preaching to the city of Nineveh around 663 to 654 BC.
You might remember God sent Jonah to Nineveh, courtesy of a giant fish, about 100 years earlier to tell them they needed to get right with God or suffer the consequences. The Ninevites heeded God’s word, and for a time, lived in obedience.
But they eventually returned to their wicked ways, and now God’s sent Nahum to warn them of His judgment for their sin against Judah and Israel and their impending destruction.
Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC.
Zechariah, also a priest, received the first in a series of visions from the Lord almost 100 years later, following the return of the people of Judah from Babylonian captivity, directing him to tell God’s people that if they would return to Him, He would return to them.
There are numerous prophecies throughout the book about both the first and second coming of Christ, like in Zechariah 9:9:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And in Zechariah 9:14 and 16:
“Then the Lord will be seen over them,
And His arrow will go forth like lightning.
The Lord God will blow the trumpet,
And go with whirlwinds from the south.”
“The Lord their God will save them in that day,
As the flock of His people.
For they shall be like the jewels of a crown,
Lifted like a banner over His land—”
Is it a coincidence that fragments of two books of prophecies, one detailing the destruction of the godless, and the other outlining the coming of Christ, have just been uncovered?
Maybe. Maybe not.
What I do know is the spirit of the antichrist is working overtime, and we do not have a minute to spare. Even if Christ tarries, none of us knows how much time we have in this life.
If we’ve been away from Christ, it’s time to return. If we’ve been lukewarm, it’s time to be on fire. If we’ve let our faith be watered down by teachers who do not walk in the truth, it’s time adhere to truth. If we haven’t been using our spiritual gift, it’s time to use it, to build up the body of Christ, and to reach the lost and dying. And for those who have never believed in Christ as the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God who lived on earth and paid for the sins of the world with His own blood, it’s time to believe.
Above all, it’s time to pray in the Spirit with all hope, love, and fervency.
Heavenly Father, forgive us for wasting so much time. Forgive us for taking the time we have here for granted, for getting so caught up in the world and not always walking with you, for not always abiding in you and living according to your will. Thank you for your forgiveness, your grace and mercy, and for your faithful love that never ends. Please show us whatever we may have allowed in our lives that keep us from you and from doing your will, give us the strength to leave it and abide in you. Give us ears to hear you, and instruct us and teach us in the way we should go. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.