“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” --John 3:16, KJV

God’s most precious love gift came to us in a baby, born just like we are, except his mother was a virgin, and His father was God’s Holy Spirit.  I ask you: Is there anything more precious on earth than a newborn baby?  It fills your heart full to overflowing. You want to tell everyone about the baby, and oh! The pictures!

John 3:16 is probably the most recognizable and most quoted verse in the Bible.  Yet, millions of people today, many right here in Thomson, grope in darkness.  As Christians, we all know the secret, the answers to bringing Peace, Joy, and Light into our troubled world.  His name is Jesus, the Son of God, who came from the Father, Creator and Sustainer of all life.  God’s great love for us caused Him to provide a way for us to be redeemed from our sins. God did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

We simply need to repent, believe, and accept God’s love gift to have everlasting life in Heaven and abundant life on earth.

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  –Galatians 2:20

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” –I John 4:7

Now, go and tell the Glad Tidings of Great joy!

Merry Christmas

My favorite Christmas album is Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson and features a host of fantastic musicians (I highly recommend it).  One song in particular took on a whole new meaning last Christmas.  It’s entitled “Labor of Love.”  The song begins with the line, “It was not a silent night…” and goes on to describe a much more realistic scene that first Christmas night.  After experiencing the birth of my own child a few months before the Advent season last year, I totally understood what the song meant.  There is nothing silent, calm, or mild about child birth (I’m sure all the mothers are saying, “Amen!” right now).  While my wife could better speak to this, as an eyewitness and “co-laborer” with my wife throughout her labor and the birth of our daughter I know how truly laborious it was!  Giving birth is hard, painful work.  And I don’t care how tough or macho you think you are, men…trust me, there’s no way any of us could endure that kind of hard, physical labor!  I believe God must give mothers-to-be some kind of supernatural power for those hours and minutes!

And so, as I think about Mary giving birth to Jesus, I reflect on the birth of my daughter and on the words of this song.  The chorus says this:

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love.

But it was more than just Mary’s labor of love; it was a labor of love from God Himself.   Jesus tells us in John 5:17, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”  God has been at work since the Fall of Man to bring redemption to His Creation.  Paul tells us that Creation itself has also been “groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” in anticipation for the completion of God’s redemptive work.

Take some time today to pay attention to the “labors of love” God has been doing in your life and in our world to bring about His redemptive plan.  He is at work saving the lost and molding and shaping you, me, and all believers into the image of His Son!

And finally, God calls us all to join Him as co-laborers in His work: “For we are co-workers in God’s service…” (1 Corinthians 3:9)  Much as I co-labored with Julia, and Joseph co-labored with Mary…only God can bring new life into people’s lives.  He does the real work, but He invites us to help and be eyewitnesses to His Glory!  Will you join Him in the messy, often painful, and hard work of helping others be born again?

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father… ” –1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

We talk about love a great deal in this world.  Everywhere around us, the topic swirls.  There are songs about love, poems about love, movies, television shows and stories about love.  We talk with one another about how much we love Mexican food, baseball or Aunt Ruth’s pound cake.  We have graffiti about love, we have a holiday that’s dedicated to love, and we have stores that sell greeting cards on the subject almost daily.  Love is an inescapable topic for us.

The funny thing is the vast array of opinions about what, exactly, love is.  On the one hand, we have Cinderella and her friends in the happily-ever-after crowd saying that real love is a “magical” feeling that overcomes every obstacle.  And on the other hand, we have a litany of country music songs that talk about how painful and hurtful love can be.  Somewhere in the middle, I’d guess, we could fit in all the pound cake, Mexican food and sports.

I’m not picking on anyone.  I happen to like quite a few of those things.  I’m just trying to illustrate a point: I think that in the hubbub of our daily living we’ve missed something essential about love.  The Bible doesn’t mince words about it – very clearly, and without pretense, it tells us that God is love.  And it goes even further, letting us know that love is not something that we do – it’s something that God did for us by sending Jesus as the payment for our sins.   Our only capacity to truly love is found in our connection to God.  (1 John 4:7-12)

So, no matter how good the baseball game, the movie or the meal – and they can be really, really good — anything other than God is only a glimpse of the real thing.  And I know I don’t always remember that.  Like you, I’m often too busy singing along with my favorite musicians about the love they’ve just found (or just lost); too caught up in the plight of my favorite TV characters (will they ever get together?); and too interested in the yumminess of my next meal to give it much thought.

So, as we concentrate on love this Advent season, I’d like to issue to you (and to myself) two challenges.  First, whenever you are singing along with a song about love, when you watch one of those movies or television shows, even while you enjoy all your favorites at Christmas dinner – think about the Source of real love.  The best this world has to offer simply can’t compare!  And second, I challenge you to do something radically different: figure out how you can emulate His definition of love, and then do it!  The Bible says, “Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.” (1 John 3:19)  Every day, there are opportunities to show God’s kind of love in a world that doesn’t even realize that it is starving for the real definition of the word!

Love- when I think about that word many different images come to mind.  There are the typical ones like a wedding, my family, my friends, and then I am reminded of Christ.  While there is probably something to be said about the order those things came to my mind, I can’t help but think that love is ultimately and completely found in the person of Christ.  This is why we celebrate Advent, because we are celebrating the coming of God’s love embodied in the person of Christ.

It will help us to understand what true love is if we look at the Bible.  There are several passages that come to mind immediately when it comes to love.  John 3, I Corinthians 13, and while those are important the verses I want to focus on are found in I John 4.  There we get to the root of what love really is.  It says:

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” — I John 4:7-12, ESV

As we can see from this section of scripture, the ultimate definition of love is God himself.  Verse 9 hints at it but Jesus in John 10:30 says, “I and the Father are one.” This would mean that Christ is the ultimate definition of love.  This is seen not only in Christ’s life, but also in his death.  In fact John refers to this in verses 9 and 10 above.  It is only through Christ that we are able to love as he loved.  This is why advent is important.  Without Christ coming into the world, there would be no true understanding of what love really was.  This is why Jesus says in John 10:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” It is through Christ’s laying down his life for his friends that we are able to come to God and understand what love truly is. Verse 10 above deals directly with this.  Love is not so much that we love God, but rather that He loved us enough to send His son as the propitiation, or appeasement for our sins.  Without Christ doing this there is no way we could ever come to God, no matter how much we loved Him or offered to Him.  I pray that while we are focusing on the manger this Christmas, that we do not forget about the cross. The cross is the only reason why Christ ever laid in the manger in the first place.

Father God, thank you for loving us enough to send your son Jesus to die for our sins. Lord, as we partake in this Christmas season may we not forget the cross.  Thank you for this ultimate example of what love truly is. Lord may we use this Christmas season to show the love of Christ to those around us.  May we be shining examples of you to our family, community, and the world.  Thank you again for sending your son to help us to comprehend what love truly is. In Jesus name,  Amen. 

When God spoke to Ananias, a certain disciple, directing  him to inquire at Judas’ house where blind Saul of Tarsus was, what was his reply?   NO, that he was afraid of Saul (and he gave the reason – Saul had been helping “get rid of,” (my words) those who professed to believe in Christ.  Ananias was uselessly trying to dissuade God to use him for the purpose of restoring Saul’s sight, simply because he, Ananias, was afraid!

At this Christmas season  God has blessed us at FBC (especially at prayer meeting services on Wednesday nights) with one of His disciples to bring the message of “sight” to us, and I am so thankful.

The times in which we live are seemingly becoming more perilous – pointing to Scriptures referencing the ‘end times’; and sadly even ‘believers’ have become uninterested in the ‘things’ of God, our Creator and our Lord.

God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus,
He came to love, heal and forgive,
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone,
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

May God bless all who have needs of the heart that only He can fill with His love.  May God help each of us to recognize our real need is to share His love from His example of providing us a Savior for a particular purpose.

Merry Christmas, I love you all.

Love is a word that has much power and has always intrigued me.  Everyone has the ability to use it, but some just don’t know how.  The thing about God is, He has the most love of anyone ever.  He knows how to love and how to make you feel loved.  He will NEVER let you down no matter what you do and He will ALWAYS love you.

“Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails…”  –1 Corinthians 13:4-8,  NIV

“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

One morning recently I woke with this thought running through my head, “God is Love.” That’s the first little verse most of us learned in Sunday School as soon as we could talk. Say it again, “God is Love.”  This verse  will never grow old no matter how simple the words.   It is timeless, short, simple, and easy to learn.  But it is powerful.  It could be called the most powerful verse ever spoken.  Join me and let’s take a look together at the powerful significance these three words hold.

God himself came to earth in human form to redeem sinful man, thus making a way for man to have an intimate, eternal relationship with the Almighty Heavenly Father.  This is what we focus on during Advent – God Is Love…he came as a baby.  But there’s more.

God is Love because he came to die in order to remove all our sin debt and make us right with Him.  Not only does He free us from all the penalty of sin, He gives us eternal life to live with Him in heaven.  God is Love…He saves us.  But there’s more.

God is Love because not only is he our Savior/Redeemer, but He is our Shepherd in life.  Just as a shepherd  tends to and cares for his sheep our God tenderly watches over us and fathers us, protecting us by giving us daily provisions sprinkled with mercy and grace.  God is Love… He protects us like a Shepherd or Father.  But there’s more.

God is Love, Savior/Redeemer, Shepherd, and also Teacher.  As teacher He gives us His Holy Word to teach us His will and show us how to live each day.  In the scriptures are His encouraging words and commands to guide our steps in life.  God is Love…He teaches us.  But there’s more.

God is Love, Savior/Redeemer, Shepherd, Father, Teacher and also Counselor.  He lives in every heart who has repented of sin and turned toward Him believing in the death of Jesus on the cross. After death on the cross Jesus left but God sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God inside us who strengthens, guides, protects, encourages, heals, imparts wisdom, understanding, and truth.  God is Love…He lives inside us.  But there’s more.

God is Love, Savior/Redeemer, Shepherd, Teacher, Counselor, and Partner. God is our partner to reconcile a lost world to Him.  Being a partner with God means you are on mission in God’s continuing redemptive work in the world.  And God can impact the world through one life partnered with His.  God is Love…He is our Partner.  And, There is more….but we as Christians will write it out in our own hearts and lives as we fellowship, worship, and serve the one who is love, God.

Dear God,  Thank you that You are love.  Thank you that you sent your son into the world.  Help me to remember the powerful significance of my first learned verse, “God is Love” and never let me underestimate the worth of those three words.  Help me share you with everyone I meet.  Amen

 When I stop and think about how much God really loves us I find myself at a loss for words. I mean, how do you describe a love that is powerful enough that God would sacrifice His only Son for you and me? What words can describe such love?

I think that John found the words in his short epistle of First John. There is so much in that short little book about God’s love, but this one verse just cries out to be heard… “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1, NIV) It is God’s love that makes it possible for us to be called the children of God.

John said it in his gospel this way, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” –John 1:11-12, NIV

He has “lavished” this great love on us.

“Lavish”- what does that word really mean? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary it means 1: expending or bestowing profusely 2a: expended or produced in abundance b: marked by profusion or excess. That’s what God’s love for us is like. It is a love that knows no limits. It is a love that far exceeds our understanding and a love that never ends in its abundance toward us. It reminds me of this old hymn text:

The Love of God

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair bowed down with care,  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.
Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole tho’ stretched from sky to sky.

Refrain:

O love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong
It shall forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.
–Frederick Martin Lehman | Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, © Public Domain

What a lavish love!

And the angel said unto them “Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” — Luke 2:10

When I was a little girl I learned a song about joy that I love to this day.  The song says:

If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy
Let Jesus come into your heart.
Your sins He’ll wash away,
Your night He’ll turn to day
Your life, He’ll make it over anew.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy
Let Jesus come into your heart.

From the youth choir I learned:

There is a love that cannot separate us
Separate us from Jesus Christ our Lord.
This love is higher than the mountains
Deeper than the oceans
Older yet than all the sands of time.
Love that cannot separate us-
Separate us from Jesus Christ our Lord.

What a joy to sing about Jesus and His love.  What a joy to remember God’s greatest gift -Jesus– who brings joy, eternal

“Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” –Luke 2:10

Imagine that night so long ago…

Shepherds dot the hillsides around Bethlehem. They turn their eyes to the sky, wondering at the unusual brilliance of the stars. The night is quiet save for the occasional sound of a sheep’s bleating and the murmur of conversation. No one will disturb these men. They are virtual outcasts, men consigned to the lowliest of occupations. Suddenly an unimaginably bright light fills the sky. Terrified, the shepherds turn away, shielding their eyes.

But then comes a voice. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” And as the shepherds dare to look into the heavens, a host of angels appears, singing, “Glory to God in the highest.” No longer frightened, the shepherds leave their flocks and go quickly into Bethlehem. There they find the child, lying in a humble manger. Here is the Christ child, whose birth the angels have announced not to kings or to priests but to simple shepherds. Filled with joy at what they have heard and what they have seen, the shepherds spread the word of this birth. They are the first.

Imagine what those shepherds felt that night. They had actually seen the ancient prophecies fulfilled. God had at last sent the promised Savior to His people. Joy had come to them. Joy had come to all the world! Have you ever wondered how long their joy lasted? As they returned to the hillside and to their sheep night after mundane night, did they still joyfully marvel at all that had happened? Or did the return to their normal lives blunt that joy? As they lived with the condescension of their “betters,” did the joy of that night still burn brightly or had it begun to falter?

What of our own joy? We are so far removed from that one wonderful night in Bethlehem. What can we do to keep alive the joy that is Jesus Christ? On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we feel that joy. But then our lives, too, return to normal – and the joy begins to fade. Would you change that if you could? If it were possible, would you choose to live every day with the joy that is the full knowledge of who Jesus Christ is?

That joy is indeed possible. Long before that night in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah wrote this about God’s redeemed: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isaiah 35:10). Isaiah was speaking of God’s kingdom that has yet to come, the eternal Heaven. In the eternal Heaven we will see God’s face. We will walk and talk with Jesus. We will be empowered by His Spirit as never before. We will be reunited with those who have gone before us. And our joy in the presence, the wonder, and the beauty of our God will never end. This is God’s intent, His plan. It always has been. Here is where our daily, abiding joy lies. Because the Christ child was born and lived among us, because He shed His blood for us, and because He was raised from death, we have salvation. We have the gift of life everlasting. Joy to the world! The Lord has come, and He will come again.