It isn’t “Peace on Earth.”
It isn’t “Good will to men.”
It isn’t “Wise men still seek Him” or “Joy to the world,” true and wonderful as all those things are.
Read through the different accounts of the first Christmas, and the most common thing you will find is a variety of ordinary people like you and me coming to grips with their fears. And the message of Christmas again and again is, “You don’t have to be afraid.” [click to continue…]
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(The Twelve Names of Christmas, Part 1)
As you may have detected from one of the previous posts, we spent last week in the magical confines of Disney World in Florida. “We” means all 15 of us – kids, spouses, and grandkids from age 5 to age 11 weeks. And, of course, about 12 thousand of our closest friends.
Every once in a while in this sea of strangers, about half of whom weren’t speaking English, I’d see somebody with that familiar cursive “A” on a cap or shirt, and out it would come – that instant bond forged among strangers as the result of two simple words: Roll Tide! And brother, it was instant. Truth be told, I did see a few people wearing blue and orange and was tempted to say “War Eagle!” to them, but just couldn’t get words to form in my mouth.
And if you have no idea what any of that last paragraph means, never mind.
There is another rallying cry, however, I do want to tell you about. In times of trouble in ancient Israel, including times of going into battle, they would summon courage and unity with one simple word:
Immanuel!
Immanuel was their way of expressing confidence that God was present with and fighting for the cause of his people. And it was no accident that when Jesus arrived on the scene in Bethlehem at that first Christmas, one of his biographers made mention of it: [click to continue…]
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Janie had an appointment with God. And the Lord didn’t show up. He’d always been pretty good at keeping the times Janie had set for Him – mostly in the little things like daily blessings and answered prayer. But this was a big one, and the Lord didn’t keep His end of the bargain.
See, Janie just knew that God was going to give her a husband, and she knew who it would be. Chuck was obviously God’s choice for her… how else could she explain all the little coincidences, the magic feeling in her heart, and even those confirming verses she read in scripture.
Apparently, however, the Lord forgot to clue Chuck in on the plan, and the big guy had plans of his own.
Janie was devastated. And more than that, she was bewildered. She had been so sure in her heart. But somebody missed God, or God missed somebody. And the result? Janie’s appointment with God ended up as a dis-appointment.
Same thing happened to Chuck with regard to his career, though he wouldn’t call it that. To Chuck it was more of a calling. [click to continue…]
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Wanna get away? Want some great in-flight entertainment? Just take a trip with your favorite three-year-old. And try making a list of all the questions you hear. Here, hot off the press, is a partial sampler from a flight we took this past Friday.
What’s amazing is how many of the questions are the same when we’re 33 or 55. We just develop questions behind the questions as we get older. The rest of this is written by Mr. Cohen Thomas (he just doesn’t know it yet)…
Why are we not going?
Are we going down?
[After passing through the clouds] Where is God?
Are we almost to Disney Wouwd? (World)
What’s that button for?
Why are we not going to Grandma and Granddaddy’s house?
Are we almost to Disney Wouwd?
Why are we going to be there tonight?
Why? [click to continue…]
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I will sing a new song to You, O God;
Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
Who gives salvation to kings,
Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword.
This comes from a victory song.
David celebrates victories he’s won to this point.
What now? [click to continue…]
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It starts out innocently enough. You dutifully climb into the attic and start hauling out the boxes of decorations. Once again the house is tricked out with stockings, twinkling lights, and the scents you save for just this time of year.
You ask the familiar questions: Do we go with same-old same-old, or try something completely new and different? Are we staying home, or traveling, or both? Who’s coming and going? What’s on the calendar between here and there? And of course, what should be get for [fill in the blank] this year for Christmas?
But here’s the tricky part – other than Black Friday, nobody’s giving you any extra time to make all that happen. You still have a job to go to (hopefully), 21 meals a week to account for, meetings to attend, bills to pay, promises to keep.
So how do you make it all fit together? You hurry. You scurry. And sometimes you worry that it never quite seems to all get done.
Truth be told, sometimes sacrifices have to be made to get it all in. And therein lies the rub… because the one thing that Christmas is all about often gets lost in the flurry. [click to continue…]
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The other day my son-in-law and oldest grandson had this little exchange:
Cohen: What does that sign say?
Curtis: Pedestrian crossing. Are you a pedestrian?
Cohen: No. I’m a Christian.
Super funny at face value. Typically profound as children’s funny things can be when you dig deeper.
Everybody knows what pedestrian, the noun, means, right? “Walker.”
Or in more recent days, “somebody who texts without a seat belt.”
But as an adjective, “pedestrian” means something different. The dictionary definition:
“lacking inspiration or excitement; dull.”
Synonyms include words like dull, boring, tedious, monotonous, uneventful, unremarkable, tiresome, wearisome, uninspired, unimaginative, unexciting, uninteresting, and uninvolving.
Are you pedestrian?
No. I’m Christian.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if being a Christian really was the opposite of being pedestrian? Wouldn’t it be amazing if somebody said, referring to one of us, “He’s too much of a Christian to live a pedestrian life”? [click to continue…]
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You’d think by now I’d have this down.
Have what?
Making decisions and finding God’s will.
Is that what you mean by “being at a crossroads?”
Yeah, I have some decisions to make, and it’s kind of a mixed bag. Some really good things and some really challenging things, either way I go.
Okay…
But I don’t want to just do what I want to do. I want to do God’s will.
As opposed to your will?
Yes. I know that he speaks through my desires. But even that’s mixed up right now.
And you need Him to sort all that out for you?
Yeah.
Sorta like those neon arrows on the highway at night that say, “Stop here?”
Boy, wouldn’t that be awesome? [click to continue…]
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You wouldn’t believe it. Not unless you saw it with your own two eyes.
You wouldn’t recognize him. Not unless you were with that band of misfits that united under his leadership.
But here you are and there he is and My God, what has happened? This is the guy whose exploits they sang about. This is the Giant Killer. In one afternoon you saw him rally his own people and send an army of Philistines running in fear.
And now he and you are living like pathetic dogs in a cave. Dirty. Haggard. Weak. Exhausted. And there before your eyes the man you knew would be king is at the end of his life.
Why?
Because he’s at the end of his courage. [click to continue…]
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We needed $370.00. That’s what I figured up after looking at the bills.
That was how much month we had left at the end of the money.
Why was this important on this day? Because I was leading a “praise revival” at a small church in north Texas. Because we were newly-married. Because we were short on cash. Because this was the last day of the conference, and the love offering check would soon be coming in.
I’ll bet you didn’t know that preachers prayed about such things.
Anyway, on this day, we needed $370. I could have asked the Lord for more; after all, it’s nothing to God to see to it I got $1,000, or $10,000 for that matter.
I could have asked for nothing, and said, “Lord, whatever your will is – that’s fine with me.”
But I sensed the freedom to ask – not big, but not small either. To pray specifically for a need. The need was for $370.00, so that was what I asked the Lord for. [click to continue…]
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