Monthly Archives: December 2016

APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY

“But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)

In a short-lived CBS series from the 1970’s, the documentary-like reenactments examined the proceedings leading up to the deaths of famous historical figures. It was appropriately titled Appointment with Destiny.  When one thinks about it, events in which we must confront unanticipated appointments can happen to each of us at any time. You are traveling down a country road soon to realize that as you go around the next bend, you will be face to face with another vehicle in your lane because its driver has fallen asleep at the wheel. You go to a routine doctor’s appointment and find that the results of your blood tests indicate that you may have a life-threatening disease.  I think about the commercial where a guy is handed a note which says that his heart attack is scheduled for tomorrow at 5 p.m.  A little forewarning would sometimes be helpful, but most times – it’s just best not to know.

One day while I was cleaning a storage area, I ran across some videos I had taken.  I decided to view them so that I could label the unidentified cases.  None were more than a few years old, but I was struck by the changes that occurred since they were made.  One included some friends and family members, several of whom had passed away.  Another contained an interview with a married couple who were celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. Both were very alert and able to recapture the details of the courtship.  Not long after its filming, they moved into a care facility where both passed away within a year.  A third video was taken at a wedding of a young couple.  They looked happy, but less than six months later they went their separate ways. Situations like these are pertinent reminders of the adage: “Want to make God laugh – tell Him your plans.” Life is certainly full of time-sensitive moments, many of which are unpredictable.

So here we are, ready to turn the page of the calendar and begin another year. Many of us will remember a time when we would buy a new annual appointment book. I used to feel like it was a whole new beginning, because those pages had nothing written on them. Then came the day of electronic scheduling. If you had a parent meeting at your child’s school on the fourth Tuesday of each month or a service club every Wednesday night, your computer would automatically roll those dates over from one year to the next. Before you know it, your “fresh start” contains so many appointments that there isn’t always time to schedule some of the things you most value. We should be wiser then about how we fill in our time and give greater scrutiny to the appointments we make. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

Scripture tells us that everything is temporal except for God and His promises which we inherit if we faithfully follow Him. We have a very important future appointment with Our Maker written in His Book of Life. David understood this: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139:16). We must, therefore, bring meaning and importance to each new day. Otherwise, they will become nothing more than a succession of fleeting moments. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). So how is it then that we should give meaning to our lives as we move day to day and year to year? Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Then on that day we He calls out your name, it will turn out to be the best unscheduled date you’ll ever have – a true appointment with destiny.

REFLECTION:  William Penn wrote – “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”  How can you apply this to your life in the upcoming year?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., JANUARY 7, 2017.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.

WORTHY AND LASTING PRAISE

“Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!”  (Psa. 150:2)

When I once went to visit the grieving parents of a young man who had died, I recalled the last words I had shared with him. They were, “I am proud of you” verbalized on the occasion of another relative’s passing when he had spoken quite eloquently.  He seemed pleased to receive my praise. As I remembered – it also made me happy that those words were the final ones I would have spoken to him. However humble we might profess to be, we all like to be the recipients of heartfelt praise acknowledging those things we have done well. God loves it too when we express our adoration and gratitude to Him for His creation. When we praise God, it enhances our fellowship with Him by indicating that we understand and value the power of His presence over our lives. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that openly profess his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

In her book In My Father’s House – Corrie Ten Boom told a story about an old monk who sang every Christmas Eve for all the monks in the monastery and for the visitors who would come from the village for the special services. The monk’s voice was unpolished. But the monk loved the Lord, and he sang from his heart. One year the director of the cloister said, “I’m sorry Brother, we will not need you to sing this Christmas Eve. We have a new monk who has a marvelous voice.” The new monk sang stunningly, and everyone was happy. But later that night, an angel came to the superior and said, “Why didn’t you have a Christmas Eve song?” The superior was very surprised. “We had a beautiful song that was inspirational. Didn’t you hear it?” The angel shook his head sadly. “It may have been inspiring to you, but we did not hear it in heaven. The old monk with the raspy voice had Christ in his heart and he sings from his heart. The young monk was singing for his own benefit.”

We can’t expect the entire world to celebrate their feelings about Christmas in the same way, but we can pray that somehow the true heart of Christmas might help them to understand what God has done for them.  Simeon understood the significance of Jesus birth when forty days afterwards Joseph and Mary entered the temple in accordance with the Law of Moses. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!’ ” (Luke 2:25-32). In some Christian traditions, a remembrance of this meeting (known as Candlemas) is celebrated each February.

Simeon provides a note of hope and expectation. His praise makes a pronouncement that the baby Jesus, whom he held in his arms, was God’s promise fulfilled. It is unmistakably clear that the Wise Men also understood who He was when they shared their gifts in praise. “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him’ ” (Matthew 2:1-2). Without a doubt, the Chosen Twelve spoke of praise for who He was. Peter, one who was closest to Jesus, said: “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 4:11). As we celebrate Christmas with great food, presents, and parties – it is important that we move beyond the tinsel. When we get to that heart of the events surrounding Jesus birth, we find deep significance of how God chose to orchestrate His coming into our world. Then we will come to realize that the praise we give for Jesus will always be worthy and lasting.

REFLECTION: When you think about your Christmas traditions, how many of them are done for your benefit as opposed to those reserved for praising God?  In what ways could you consider reprioritizing how you celebrate the birth of Jesus? How might you invite others to join you in your ‘praise revision’ ?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., DECEMBER 31, 2016.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.

JOY AND SORROW

“When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!” (Matthew 2:10)

As I sat in the home of a friend who was dying, I doubted very much if he would make it until Christmas.  Becoming engaged in conversation with his spouse as he went in and out of consciousness, I learned that his brother was also terminally ill. Here is a family soon to be filled with sorrow. On my prayer list, there are at least a dozen families who will be going through their first Christmas without a loved one. The Christmas season has become a difficult time for many in our society, prompting one to ask the question –  Is sorrow more plentiful at this time of year, or are we just more conscious of it? According to the National Institute of Health, during Christmas people experience a high incidence of depression. For those of us who don’t have these difficulties at present, it certainly provides an opportunity to reach out. Those who do so will discover that “Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of people, but from doing something worthwhile” (Wilfred T. Grenfell).

One would think that joy and sorrow are polar opposites. However, it seems more like they are close-knit companions with one taking dominance over the other.  Just as we can’t appreciate the light if we haven’t spent time in the dark, joy and sorrow are much the same way. One thing is true – each of us has those days and moments when we must look a little harder to see the joy scattered within our sorrow. But joy is there, and we nearly always find it again.  We just need to know where to look. Ultimately, we may learn that it is impossible to know joy unless we go through periods of sorrow. Whenever we seek God’s direction during our suffering – we often see Him more clearly, and our joy is made full. Consider this thought from Philip Bernstein: “We have no right to ask, when sorrow comes, ‘why did this happen to me?’ unless we ask the same question for every joy that comes our way.”

This story is told in a 1980 excerpt Our Daily Bread: Many years ago, a Salvation Army officer was preaching in Chicago when a man spoke out in front of the crowd, “You can talk about how Christ is dear to you, but if your wife were dead, as my wife is, and you had babies crying for their mother, you couldn’t say what you are saying.” A few days later, that preacher’s wife was killed in a tragic train accident. At the funeral service, the grieving husband stood beside her casket and said, “The other day when I was preaching in this city, a man said that if my wife were dead and my children were crying for their mother, I couldn’t say that Christ was sufficient. If that man is here, I tell him that Christ is sufficient! My heart is crushed, bleeding, and broken. But there is also a song in my heart and Christ put it there. The Savior speaks comfort to me today.” The man who had raised the objection was present, and he surrendered his life to Christ.

“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:10-11). The angels delivered the best possible news. For we who trust that Jesus holds our future and for those who have died in the Lord, His birth will always be ‘good news’. Late in His ministry when His time had come, Jesus told His disciples that He would turn their sorrow into joy. By using the analogy of a woman in labor, He said: “she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16:21). The Apostle Paul reflected a similar message when he stated, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18). The Messiah also needed first to suffer and then enter His glory for the sake of His kingdom. By doing so He prepared a place for each of us – a place where pain and sorrow is relieved and only joy remains for all of eternity. If you believe that, you have captured a true understanding of why love came down at Christmas. Like the Magi, we too should be filled with joy every time we think of that star over Bethlehem (Matthew 2:9-11).

REFLECTION: Think of a time when you experienced great sorrow and then found renewed joy. If you were asked to define Biblical Joy to someone, what would you say? How can you help someone this Christmas begin to search for joy in the midst of their sorrow?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., DECEMBER 24, 2016.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.

WITH AWE AND AMAZEMENT

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” (Psalm 65:8)

“Godspeed, John Glenn” were the infamous words that were spoken by astronaut Scott Carpenter as his fellow Mercury 7 astronaut was launched into space from Cape Canaveral on April 12, 1961. It was a solo mission which only lasted just shy of five hours, but Glenn will always be remembered as the first American to orbit the earth. He did so at the age of 40. He is quoted as once having said. “There is still no cure for the common birthday.” However, thirty-seven years later in 1998 – he ventured into space again, this time for nine days testing the effects of space travel on an aging body. Having become fascinated with flying at a young age, he piloted his own personal plane until he was 90. On December 8, 2016 – he left earth for the final time, marking his passing at the ripe old age of 95. Those who were part of the generation serving witness to his pioneering into space will remember his missions with awe and amazement.

These days, I have considered if we view much of anything with the same sense of awe and wonder that we once did. I can remember my early Christmases with what must be a much different perspective than that of today’s children. Then, there was a feeling of anticipation that doesn’t seem to exist much today. These days, children are barely back in school from summer break with Halloween yet in the distance when Christmas trees and other decorations start to populate the stores. By the time Christmas Day arrives, they have no doubt seen dozens of trees over the course of the past three months. What was once new and exciting has now become familiar and assumed. Not so long ago, the tree was as much a part of Christmas morning as the gifts and the evidence that Santa must have somehow shimmied his way down that chimney one more time. It is no surprise that many are just tired of it all and ready to pack it up the day after.

Awe and wonder are at the very root of our Christian walk. In the Holy Scriptures, Luke tells the story of a paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by some men and lowered into a house from the roof on a mat because of the crowds. Seeing their faith, Jesus forgave the man of his sins but was criticized by the religious rulers of the day. “Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, ‘Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.’ Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home.’ And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, ‘We have seen amazing things today’” (Luke 5:22-26). It’s been said that when we allow our focus to be diverted away from God, we will cease to be amazed.  How true that is for many today.

After seeing the baby Jesus, the shepherds began to spread the word of what they had been told and themselves witnessed. “And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (Luke 2:18). A sense of awe for what they had seen led them to glorify and praise God (Luke 2:20).  Max Lucado put it this way: “Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him, and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.”  When nothing impresses us anymore, we must spend time with God. For when we rest in Him, even in the busiest of seasons – our eyes become more like those of the astronaut: focused beyond the things of this world and renewed once again with awe and amazement.

REFLECTION: What experiences elicit a sense of awe and wonder for you?  How can you allow the season of Advent to revitalize your relationship with Jesus?  Are there ways in which you can reach out to others this Christmas and help them to also find new wonderment in their life?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., DECEMBER 17, 2016.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.

COME TO THE MANGER

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

This time of year, you get all kinds of invitations without even knowing the people who sent them. Over the last few weeks, I have received email notices for gift cards from numerous major chains. This sounded like something I might be able to use, until I figured out the hook.  First you must complete a survey, and at the end of the survey there are numerous purchasing choices from which you must select before you become eligible for the free card.  I have also received invitations for new credit cards. There is usually some incentive attached to joining in hopes that I will exceed my ability to pay off all my extra holiday spending. Then the company will be able to make some money on my unpaid balance in the new year. My favorite is Publisher’s Clearing House who says you need to do nothing to win a huge cash prize.  Over the next weeks and months you will hear from them regularly with envelopes filled with purchasing offers, leading you to believe that you are now one of a very few who may be selected for a big payout. Invitations like these always come at a cost, even if it’s just your personal information.

A few years ago, I was invited to the home of former work colleague for a Christmas party. For whatever reason, I decided not to attend and respectfully sent my regrets.  That next summer, I ran into this individual and his wife who were doing some shopping.  He went on about the wonderful time they had at the party that past Christmas and stated that during the ensuing warm months, they would be hosting a picnic at their home. I was informed that again I would be invited but I had better attend this time, because “once you are a ‘no-show’ twice – you get taken off the list.”  My expression, or lack thereof, must have been a dead giveaway. Either they didn’t have the picnic or my invitation got lost in the mail.  Having struggled myself with holiday open house guest lists, I tried not to be too critical. There are always considerations such as the capacity of your home and the compatibility of those whom you are including. I guess it could become quite simple to weed out your list of invitees, but I am sure glad Jesus doesn’t apply that same criteria to His invitation.

At Christmas, we are invited over and again to come to the manger. We do so as we light our Advent candles, stop by the live nativity in the mall, or attend church services Christmas eve. But we must remember that the birth of Jesus was only the beginning. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). What a great invitation to know that we can simply rest in the arms of Jesus no matter whether we are carrying guilt from the past, worried about the future, or just exhausted with the weight of the world of everyday life. Still another invitation to contentment awaits each of us.  Jesus also invites us to fellowship, as He said “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). As Jesus summoned fishermen of His day to become part of the ‘Chosen Twelve’ – He also invites us to discipleship. When we accept this invitation, we enter an intimate relationship. We become partners by extending His invitation to others.

The final invitation Christ offers us is to be part of His kingdom. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). Those who do so are the recipients of His love and affection. No invitation of any kind in this world can compare with fact that you belong to God and are identified with Him. We can have joy in knowing that it’s not a temporary membership. His invitation is neither conditional or time-limited. He has paid our dues for all of eternity with His journey from a simple manger in Bethlehem to a lonely, horrifying death on the cross at Calvary. That is a real invitation, my friend, and it comes with a promise that if you remain in Him – you will never be taken off the guest list. Jesus is the Master of inclusion. He is Lord of all, and His invitation is for everyone . . . no gimmicks included.

REFLECTION: How do you think others feel when they are invited to your home? Have you ever had to exclude or been excluded from an invitation list? How can you show appreciation for the many invitations Jesus gifts to you this Christmas?

A NEW LOOKUP  DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., DECEMBER 10, 2016.  COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.