Volume 15: "Christmases Past"

In the news of our nation, I just saw where two people won a total of 636-million-dollars by guessing the "right" numbers playing the lottery. I have news for the "winners". All of their new-won money will not buy them peace. Peace isn't found in new money. Peace is found in an old manger.

You know what I miss most about "Christmases Past?" I miss the sense that everyone was content and grateful with what they had. I know that ever since the beginning of Creation people have been grasping for more and more, however, when I was a boy at Christmastime, it seemed that most all of the families in our community were more content and grateful with what they had rather than desiring more monetary gain. People seemed more at peace with their own lives, more glad for their health and less focused on others' wealth.

Call it the naive perspective of a child, because maybe that's where my memories of "Christmases Past" originate? If so, then, I want to be more like a child these days, like I was in those days. I don't want success in my mind to be defined as more and more financial accumulation, but in more and more faith saturation.

As I write these words, December 18, 2013, my Dad is in the Greenville, North Carolina, Medical Center in severe pain. A few days ago, he learned that he has a tumor at the base of his spine. Operating is not an option because it could paralyze him. So, while we await the results of a biopsy taken yesterday, Dad's pain is severe. Hopefully, today, a desired diagnosis will be discovered and some form of treatment to reduce the size of the tumor and find Dad some relief will begin to happen.

In talking with Dad early this morning, he said tenderly, "I am in great pain, son, but I have good peace." In our conversation, financial accumulation had no relevancy. The only things that matter now pertain to internal and eternal priorities. Remember, it's our faith, family, and friends that deliver to our lives the essence of true peace.

Good News! It's "Christmas Present!" Don't focus on money and "winning" some big, complicated Jack-Pot. Simply, fall at the manger and find everlasting Jesus-Present, and LIVE at Peace with God and with yourself this Christmas and beyond!

Grateful            

Inconveniences as Investment Opportunities?

How might we bless the heart of God and even bless ourselves if we viewed so called "temporary inconveniences" in our lives as God-ordered opportunities to make "eternal investments" in the lives of never-dying souls for the glory of Jesus?

I'd say Jesus saw His death on the Cross as an inconveneient investment in our lives!

Re-read, reflect, and repeat.

Deo Volente -- Whatever God Wants
Grateful

Remember The Brevity of Your Life

(13) Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” (14) How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. -- James 4:13-14 (NLT)

(13) You should know better than to say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" (14) What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. -- James 4:13-14 (CEV)

LET'S REMEMBER THAT WHILE OUR EARTHLY LIVES ARE FRAGILE,
HIS ETERNAL LIFE (WITHIN US) IS FOR FOREVER AND FOREVER!

Holiness Unto the LORD!
Grateful

Everyone Who Believes in Him... Come!

In all the public pageantry of Christmas, let's not miss the personal promise of Christmas. Jesus came to be more than a decoration. The Son came to be the Father's demonstration of love, that we might be delivered from every sin and the eternal death it deals.

The personal promise of Christmas is a directed declaration to all who will individually embrace His inclusive invitation recorded in John 3:16-17 (NLT):

(16) For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (17) God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

This Christmas will you and be among Everyone Who Believes in Him? Will we come to the earthly cradle and receive God's Heavenly Compassion? Will we come?

Jars of Clay Singing "Drummer Boy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0hAPimGrU

Come They Told Me... Pa RumPa Pum Pum!
Grateful

Is American Retirement a Kingdom Tragedy?

The American definition of retirement is losing its appeal to me. I'm talking about the whole idea of reaching a certain age so I can focus the sunset years of my life -- yes the lion's share of my remaining time, abilities, and money -- mainly on my own leisure and earthly pleasure rather than on God's mission and eternal treasure.

Is it possible that the American definition of retirement is in fact a Kingdom Tragedy? If you're brave enough to think about it, here's a link that will assist you. It might mess up your future plans?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_TmQdxkcI&feature=related

So I pray, Lord, help me to trace and embrace Your plans for my entire existence on planet earth. Yes, I want my whole life, to the very end, to be ordered by You alone. Remind me that my life does not belong to me, but to You, totally. I am so humbled and grateful that You died to save me from my sinful actions and from my self-centered attitude, too. Please Lord, don't let the traditional American definition of retirement rock me asleep spiritually. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

...their own complacency will destroy them. -- Proverbs 1:32 (NLT)

You are not your own... -- 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)

(24) Then Jesus said to the disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. (25) If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. (26) And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?" -- Matthew 16:24-26 (NLT)

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
-- Hebrews 3:14 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Who's Your Soul's Thriller?

Mrs. Chas. Cowman suggests this translation of 1 Samuel 2:1:

My heart thrills over the Eternal:
My powers are heightened by my God.

Thoro Harris penned this hymn in 1931:

Who can cheer the heart like Jesus
By His presence all divine
True and tender, pure and precious
O, how blest to call Him mine

Chorus
All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see

Love of Christ so freely given
Grace of God beyond degree
Mercy higher than the heavens
Deeper than the deepest sea

What a wonderful redemption
Never can a mortal know
How my sin, though red like crimson
Can be whiter than the snow

Every need His hand supplying
Every good in Him I see
On His strength divine relying
He is all in all to me

By the crystal flowing river
With the ransomed I will sing
And forever and forever
Praise and glorify the King

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

No Such Thing

Do we belong exclusively to God? If so, let us be encouraged, in that, "there is no such thing as prayer unanswered or prayer unnoticed by our God." -- H. Bonar

2 Corinthians 4:13-18 (NIV) -- (13) It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, (14) because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. (15) All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. (16) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (17) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (18) So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Pure Light

1 John 1:5 from the Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible contains these eternally bright words:

God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in Him.

Lord, let Your pure light come and shine in and through me. Yes, that I might BE LIGHT! GO SHINE! ... Your pure light to Your world. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Our Everyday Lives? An Eternal Offering!

One of the most soul-searching invitations in the New Testament to me personally is Romans 12:1 from The Message Paraphrase:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

God Loved Us First + God Loves Us Most

2 Corinthians 5:21 gives us a deep look into God's love for us: God made Him (His Son) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus was made sin for us, taking on our penalty -- eternal death. Will we now be made Holy in Him, taking on His righteousness -- Eternal Life?

Let us never forget that:
(1) God Loved Us First + (2) God Loves Us Most!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, INDEED!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Warning!

Your earthly success can put your eternal soul in serious danger!

(31)"Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (33) But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:31-33 (NKJV)

Lord, I don't want my worrying to cancel out worshipping You in my life. Knowing You is success to me. Because you are my King, I want to seek Your Kingdom first and last... yes, for forever and today. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Just Breathe

For me, the most wonderful 24 hours of each year's calendar happens between midnight Christmas Eve, December 24, and midnight Christmas Day, December 25. It's true. For as long as I can remember, the most holy, predictable moments in my life have miraculously transpired like clockwork each and every year on that one Divine Day of the year that we officially celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus. It's a holy high-water mark on planet earth for my eternal soul.

And that's why I was still awake in our living room at 1:30 a.m. on December 26, not wanting Christmas Day 2009 to slip away (even though in reality it already had). Sitting in the glow of our Christmas tree with Christmas music still playing softly in the atmosphere, I finally decided to just breathe this prayer: Lord, please keep Christmas alive in me for these next 364 days.. and beyond.

ALL... JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
Grateful