December 31st is an Occasion (David Jeremiah)

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid . . . for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

To many people, today's just another day; and to the Lord, it's but a passing instant. But for us, December 31st is an occasion to entrust the past to God's keeping and the future to His service.

In his final message to the Israelites, Moses told them to be strong, courageous, and mindful of God's presence as they crossed Jordan and entered the Promised Land. "He will not leave you nor forsake you," Moses said. The New Testament applies those words to us in Hebrews 11:5, so we can claim them as a promise of our own for the New Year.

God may have something new for you in 2008, but perhaps it seems foggy just now. Maybe your family isn't on board, or you don't have the details worked out. But remember: The Lord repeatedly led individuals into new territory in the Bible, and not once did He fail to show them the way. So be strong and of good courage. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

I am well, but weak; and for another year of service I need that the right hand of the Lord may be laid upon me, and that He should say to me, "Be strong: fear not." - Charles Spurgeon

Emmanuel. He is with us. God came near. (Max Lucado)

It’s Christmas night.

The midnight hour has chimed and I should be asleep, but I’m awake. I’m kept awake by one stunning thought. The world was different this week. It was temporarily transformed.

The magical dust of Christmas glittered on the cheeks of humanity ever so briefly, reminding us of what is worth having and what we were intended to be. We forgot our compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We put away our ladders and ledgers, we hung up our stopwatches and weapons. We stepped off our race tracks and roller coasters and looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem.

More than at any other time, we think of him. More than in any other season, his name is on our lips.

And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermesh and we become a chorus. A ragtag chorus of longshoremen, Boston lawyers, illegal immigrants, housewives, and a thousand other peculiar persons who are banking that Bethlehem’s mystery is in reality, a reality.

For a few precious hours, he is beheld. Christ the Lord. Those who pass the year without seeing him, suddenly see him.

Emmanuel. He is with us. God came near.

Soon life will be normal again. But for the moment, I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. I want to pray that those who beheld him today will look for him when the gifts are history and carols are quiet. And I can’t help but linger on one fanciful thought: If he can do so much with such timid prayers lamely offered in December, how much more could he do if we thought of him every day?

For after all, the One who came that Christmas morning so long ago, still comes. He comes every time a seeker turns his face heavenward and says “Yes!” to the Savior. A Savior sent by a God who “so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

A Star in the Sky

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39.

Here is what we want to know.

We want to know how long God’s love will endure . . . Does God really love us forever? We want to know . . . how does God feel about me when I’m a jerk?

I want to know how he feels about me when I snap at anything that moves, when my thoughts are gutter-level, when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock. How does he feel about me then?

Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us?

God answered our question before we asked it. So we’d see his answer, he lit the sky with a star. So we’d hear it, he filled the night with a choir; and so we’d believe it, he did what no man had ever dreamed. He became flesh and dwelt among us.

The Least of These.... (David Jeremiah)

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40

Courtney Steever is a missionary to the poor in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. The needs are limitless: "Some days it just seems too overwhelming," she says. "Often I get tired of the frequent tugs of little hands on my sleeves asking for rupees as I walk down the street . . . . Need is around every corner, under every bridge, down every street—yet it's so easy not to see."

Courtney and some workers from the Missionaries of Charity visited the Sealdah Train Station to search for the destitute and ill. She stopped to give a hard-boiled egg to a young man covered in rags, to wrap the wounds of a woman. They came upon a dying man lying on the ground, covered with flies and his own waste, and took him to the Sisters of Charity home where he lived only a few hours. But he died with a measure of dignity, surrounded by people who cared for him. When Courtney wonders if her work makes any real difference, she remembers that man. It made a difference, for a few hours, to him.

Your cup of water will not quench the thirst of all the world's poor, but it will quench the thirst of the one to whom you give it.

Keep Jesus Christ in your hearts, and
you will recognize His face in every
human being. John Paul II

Rest? At Christmas? (Max Lucado)

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter.” Exodus 20:9-10

God knows us so well. He can see the store owner reading this verse and thinking, “Somebody needs to work that day. If I can’t, my son will.” So God says, Nor your son. “Then my daughter will.” Nor your daughter…“I guess I’ll have to send my cow to run the store, or maybe I’ll find some stranger to help me.” No, God says. One day of the week you will say no to work and yes to worship. You will slow and sit down and lie down and rest.

Still we object…“What about my grades?” “I’ve got my sales quota.” We offer up one reason after another, but God silences them all with a poignant reminder: “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” God’s message is plain: “If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do.”

Repeat these words after me: It is not my job to run the world.

Are you Like a Child? (Max Lucado)

“You must change and become like little children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

Bedtime is a bad time for kids. No child understands the logic of going to bed while there is energy left in the body or hours left in the day.

My children are no exception. A few years ago, after many objections and countless groans, the girls were finally in their gowns, in their beds, and on their pillows. I slipped into the room to give them a final kiss. Andrea, the five-year-old, was still awake, just barely, but awake. After I kissed her, she lifted her eyelids one final time and said, “I can’t wait until I wake up.”

Oh, for the attitude of a five-year-old! That simple uncluttered passion for living that can’t wait for tomorrow. A philosophy of life that reads, “Play hard, laugh hard, and leave the worries to your father.” A bottomless well of optimism flooded by a perpetual spring of faith. Is it any wonder Jesus said we must have the heart of a child before we can enter the kingdom of heaven?

The Manger of My Heart (Renee Swope)

CAROLINE WARD SENT ME THE EMAIL BELOW:

Recently a sister in Christ and new friend, Renee Swope, shared this prayer on her blog that she wrote several years ago. Renee is with Proverbs31 Ministries, an organization "Bringing God's Peace, Perspective, and Purpose to Today's Busy Woman."

It is also the ministry through which I have answered a calling from God on my life. In the near future I will begin what Proverbs 31 Ministries calls a "Gather and Grow" group for women.

Ladies, you will be hearing more about that later. In the meantime, take a few moments, men and women alike, to read the following prayer. It has helped to change my perspective on Christmas. Enjoy!

Caroline Ward

The Manger of My Heart

This Christmas, Lord, come to the manger of my heart.
Fill me with your presence, from the very start.
As I prepare for the holidays, and gifts to be given,
Remind me of the gift You gave,
when you sent Your Son from Heaven.

The first Christmas gift, the greatest gift ever,
You came as a baby born in a manger.
Wrapped like the gifts I find under my tree,
Waiting to be opened, to reveal Your love to me.

This Christmas, Lord, come to the manger of my heart.
Search me and know the most intimate parts.
Reveal to me if I have ever hung a sign within,
Claiming it off limits, implying "no room at the Inn."

Restore to me the wonder that came with Jesus’ birth,
when He left the riches of Heaven
and wrapped Himself in rags of earth.
Emmanuel, God with us, Your presence came that night.
As angels announced, "Into your darkness,
God brings His Light."

"Do not be afraid," they said, to shepherds in the field.
Speak to my heart today, Lord, and help me to yield.
Make me like those shepherd boys, obedient to your call.
Casting distractions and worries aside,
to You I surrender them all.

Surround me with Your presence, Lord,
I long to hear your voice.
Clear my mind of concerns and all the holiday noise.
Slow me down this Christmas, let me not be in a rush.
In the midst of parties and planning,
I want to feel Your hush.

This Christmas, Jesus, come to the manger of my heart.
Invade my soul like Bethlehem, bringing peace to every part.
Dwell within and around me,
as I unwrap Your presence each day.
Keep me close to You, Jesus.
It’s in your wonderful Name I pray.

© 2003, Renee Swope ~ www.ReneeSwope.com



http://reneeswope.blogspot.com/2007/11/christmas-prayer.html

A HEAVENLY AFFIRMATION (Max Lucado)

Each of us has a fantasy that our family will be like the Waltons, an expectation that our dearest friends will be our next of kin. Jesus didn’t have that expectation. Look how he defined his family: “My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants” (Mark 3:35).

When Jesus’ brothers didn’t share his convictions, he didn’t try to force them. He recognized that his spiritual family could provide what his physical family didn’t. If Jesus himself couldn’t force his family to share his convictions, what makes you think you can force yours?

We can’t control the way our family responds to us. When it comes to the behavior of others toward us, our hands are tied. We have to move beyond the naive expectation that if we do good, people will treat us right. The fact is they may and they may not—we cannot control how people respond to us.

I can’t assure you that your family will ever give you the blessing you seek, but I know God will. Let God give you what your family doesn’t. If your earthly father doesn’t affirm you, then let your heavenly Father take his place.

God has proven himself as a faithful father. Now it falls to us to be trusting children. Let God give you what your family doesn’t. Let him fill the void others have left. Rely upon him for your affirmation and encouragement. Look at Paul’s words: “You are God’s child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child” (Gal. 4:7, emphasis added).

[And] don’t lose heart. God still changes families.

From He Still Moves Stones
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1999)
Max Lucado

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us"

Richard Sibbes in The Bruised Reed

Forgives us all, Forgives us still...

Many find Jesus’ teaching on enemy love and forgiveness a stumbling block to faith. Because we find it too difficult to practice, we dismiss it as unrealistic and utopian. We should think again, and we should pray that it is not unrealistic, because this congruence of Jesus—the consistency between his teaching on forgiveness and his action on the cross—is really our only hope. It is all that stands between us and the consequences of our monumental frailty. Thank God today that Jesus died as he lived, because with those words, “Father, forgive…” he forgives us all, and he forgives us still.

- Peter Storey in Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross

In the End, We'll Win (David Jeremiah)

He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death . . . and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)

Monday night football is played mid-afternoon in Hawaii due to the time zone, so the local TV station delays its telecast until 6:30 p.m. Native Hawaiian, Lyle Akaki, admits that when his favorite team is playing, he is too excited to wait for the delayed airing and listens to it on the radio in real time. Then, he watches it on television later that night. If his team won, it influences how he watches the game: Fumbles or interceptions aren't a problem because he thinks to himself, "That's bad, but it's okay. In the end we'll win."

As Christians, we have no reason to fear death. The game has been played, the Lord has won, and the Bible promises us that "we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection" (Romans 6:5b NIV).

We worship a God who went to battle with death and emerged victorious. As a result, we have a hope that extends beyond this life and promises an eternity spent with our loving Savior.

"I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right."

Billy Graham

Charles Swindoll on Trying to Earn Acceptance

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:7

"Imagine coming to a friend’s house who has invited you over to enjoy a meal. You finish the delicious meal and then listen to some fine music and visit for awhile. Finally, you stand up and get your coat as you prepare to leave. But before you leave you reach into your pocket and say, “Now, how much do I owe you?” What an insult! You don’t do that with someone who has graciously given you a meal. Isn’t it strange, though, how this world is running over with people who think there’s something they must do to pay God back? Somehow they are hoping God will smile on them if they work real hard and earn his acceptance; but that’s an acceptance on the basis of works. That’s not the way it is with grace." Charles Swindoll in The Grace Awakening

Praise and Hope (David Jeremiah)

But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. Psalm 71:14

See if you can find one Christian, just one, who is filled with praise for the Lord—but is hopeless. Or, see if you can find one who is hopeful about the present and future but never praises the Lord. Hope and praise seem to go together in the Christian life—and why shouldn't they? For the Christian, to have hope is consistent with having faith in a gracious God, meaning He is worthy of praise. One flows naturally from the other.

The psalmist combined these two elements when he found himself in the hand of "the wicked . . . the unrighteous and cruel man" (Psalm 71:4). In spite of his dire situation, he said he would continue to hope and would praise the Lord "more and more" (verse 14). The more the psalmist hoped, the more he praised; and the more he praised, the more he hoped! It was a self-perpetuating cycle with each virtue stimulating the other. What about you? If you find yourself hopeful but lacking praise, check the object of your hope. If you're praising but lacking hope, check the object of your praise.

Praise keeps hope alive while hope becomes a reason for praise.

"Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God . . . . All the danger is of saying too little." Matthew Henry

One appointment that none of us will miss.... (Max Lucado)

“Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise.” Psalm 90:12

In a life marked by doctor appointments, dentist appointments, and school appointments, there is one appointment that none of us will miss, the appointment with death. “Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God” (Heb. 9:27 tev). Oh, how we’d like to change that verse. Just a word or two would suffice. “Nearly everyone must die…” or “Everyone who forgets to eat right and take vitamins must die…” But those are not God’s words. In his plan everyone must die, even those who eat right and take their vitamins.

Exercise may buy us a few more heartbeats. Medicine may grant us a few more breaths. But in the end, there is an end. And the best way to face life is to be honest about death.

Evidence of Hope (David Jeremiah)

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17

If you have ever had to practice football twice a day in 100 degree heat, endure nine weeks of military basic training, or live with nausea for six weeks of chemotherapy, you were likely told, "Hang in there. You can do anything for a short period of time." The difference between "temporary" and "permanent" can seem like the difference between life and death.

The apostle Paul knew the difference between the two. There were many occasions in his Christian life where he felt terrible, but he never lost heart (2 Corinthians 4:16). In fact, his favorite phrase was "but not": Hard-pressed, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (verses 8-9). Paul knew that every difficulty was temporary. Even if it lasted his whole life, he still saw it as temporary compared to the hope of eternity. If he ever lost hope, it was only for the moment. His permanent perspective was eternal hope in the goodness and purpose of God.Have you learned to separate the temporary from the permanent in your life? That distinction is evidence that hope is alive and well.

The future is as bright as the promises of God. Adoniram Judson

Proud????

"Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger."

---C.S. Lewis

Making the Impossible Possible (Max Lucado)

“God can do things that are not possible for people to do.” Luke 18:27

God always rejoices when we dare to dream. In fact, we are much like God when we dream. The Master exults in newness. He delights in stretching the old. He wrote the book on making the impossible possible.

Examples? Check the Book.

Eighty-year-old shepherds don’t usually play chicken with Pharaohs…but don’t tell that to Moses.

Teenage shepherds don’t normally have showdowns with giants…but don’t tell that to David.

Night-shift shepherds don’t usually get to hear angels sing and see God in a stable…but don’t tell that to the Bethlehem bunch.

And for sure don’t tell that to God. He’s made an eternity out of making the earthbound airborne. And he gets angry when people’s wings are clipped.

More on Humility?

Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.

- Archbishop Oscar Romero

Jesus and Humility (Max Lucado)

"He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.” Philippians 2:7

God grants us an uncommon life to the degree we surrender our common one. “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” (Matt. 16:25 NLT).

Jesus did. He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men…He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death” (Phil. 2:7-8).

No one in Nazareth saluted him as the Son of God. He did not stand out in his elementary-classroom photograph, demanded no glossy page in his high school annual. Friends knew him as a woodworker, not a star hanger. His looks turned no heads; his position earned him no credit.

“He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.”

God hunts for those who will do likewise—people through whom he can deliver Christ into the world.

Random Quote (Pascal)

People never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

He will rejoice over you with gladness...(Max Lucado)

“He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love.” Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV

Suppose you dwell in a high-rise apartment. On the window sill of your room is a solitary daisy. This morning, you picked the daisy and pinned it on your lapel.

But as soon as you’re out the door, people start picking petals off your daisy. Someone snags your subway seat. Petal picked. You’re blamed for the bad report of a coworker… More petals. By the end of the day, you’re down to one…You’re only one petal-snatching away from a blowup.

What if the scenario was altered slightly? Let’s add one character. The kind man in the apartment next door runs a flower shop. Every night on the way home he stops at your place with a fresh bouquet. Because of him, your apartment has a sweet fragrance, and your step has a happy bounce. Let someone mess with your flower, and you’ve got a basketful to replace it!

God hand-delivers a bouquet to your door every day. Open it! Take them! Then, when rejections come, you won’t be left short-petaled.

from A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado