http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR9-PA64KUM
This day I remember the good news about Christmas, Christmas is a reminder that at some point in history God so loved the world in all its sin and error that He sent us His only Son so that Son would be in our care, just an infant and we would raise him up and he would live with us, joke with us and cry with us. That Son later created the bridge in the form of a cross that would forever more make a pathway to God’s door, never to be blocked. To me this is the celebrative reason for this season. We were given a gift so fine, so pure and so simple that we can live a lifetime and still not mentally intake it all. A gift to bring us home, to the loving arms of the One who created us and placed us here on earth. Please read Psalm 139, we have all been there and we have all done things that the person next to us could judge unforgivable but I am thankful that only He is the true judge and He has said, “It is finished.” Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Peace .
Friday, December 24, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
The One Thing I Want For Christmas
It’s Christmas Time and What Will You Celebrate?
It has been a long time since my last post and much has taken place in our world. The Russians are now best friends with the Chinese and Iran races to acquire a nuclear bomb, guess we know what they want for Christmas ;-)
I have been busy working around my home adding things to my survival preps and food stocks. My wife and I continue to talk about what is happening in our world and how we see it through the eyes of our faith. We watch people like Jack Van Impi and Hal Lindsey and they smile from ear to ear almost bounding out of their seats and insisting that Jesus is coming very soon. This idea makes us very happy. While we love living here on earth and enjoy the world God has created we are not blind to the evils of humankind and we see the great injustices continually perpetrated upon the poor and defenseless of this world. Jesus IS coming soon and to a manger near you. I do not want to sound funny but it is true given the calendar day and time of year.
There is much around us that can so easily draw our attention away from the true meaning of the season, Jesus. The Holy bible tells us that God “found” favor with Mary, so much so that He sent an angel to greet her and not just any angel. This was an Arc Angel – Gabriel and his job is to be at the side of God’s throne. It strikes me that God thought so much of Mary and what were going to happen that He made a very big deal of it. He gave Gabriel a special message, Mary was with God’s favor, not that she had done anything special to warrant it but that God had chosen to give it to her. God chooses to give us all something, we may not see it but there is something and in His eyes and heart we warranted being saved and Jesus was sent to us as a babe lying in an animal’s food trough. Why did God feel He had to go so far into poverty? Why did God believe that Jesus had to be born through illegitimate parents, away from their families and treated as though they were street people? I will not pretend to read God’s mind but what I see in it is that no sign or means of wealth status was given to Jesus. In some part of our world that means a lot to many people.
He is the redeemer King and friend of all who the world has cast out of its societal circles. Jesus is soon to be lying in the manger once again under someone’s tree or atop their television within a manger scene and once again He will allow Himself to be identified with those who are shunned and told by the world that they do not count and that they should just go somewhere else, “the inn is full.”
Jesus is our living present and gift given by a loving Father and God to all of us who are blessed and fortunate to have been awakened by the spirit of God through the workings of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is once again brought to the level of a defenseless infant who cries of hunger and dirty diapers, needing our attention. “Our attention”? Yes, our attention, yours and mine. It is our charge put upon us by the Holy Spirit to care for and nurture this Holy infant child who lives now in the manger of our hearts. We must feed Him with our time and clothe Him with our praises of gratitude. He waits to be washed by our tears and dried with the soft touch of our heart’s embrace. Jesus is the meaning and gift of this season, let us celebrate as Mary did and sing to God, you know the words…don’t you? My soul gives glory to the Lord and my spirit shall rejoice in God my savior, for He who is mighty has done great things and Holy is God’s name.
It has been a long time since my last post and much has taken place in our world. The Russians are now best friends with the Chinese and Iran races to acquire a nuclear bomb, guess we know what they want for Christmas ;-)
I have been busy working around my home adding things to my survival preps and food stocks. My wife and I continue to talk about what is happening in our world and how we see it through the eyes of our faith. We watch people like Jack Van Impi and Hal Lindsey and they smile from ear to ear almost bounding out of their seats and insisting that Jesus is coming very soon. This idea makes us very happy. While we love living here on earth and enjoy the world God has created we are not blind to the evils of humankind and we see the great injustices continually perpetrated upon the poor and defenseless of this world. Jesus IS coming soon and to a manger near you. I do not want to sound funny but it is true given the calendar day and time of year.
There is much around us that can so easily draw our attention away from the true meaning of the season, Jesus. The Holy bible tells us that God “found” favor with Mary, so much so that He sent an angel to greet her and not just any angel. This was an Arc Angel – Gabriel and his job is to be at the side of God’s throne. It strikes me that God thought so much of Mary and what were going to happen that He made a very big deal of it. He gave Gabriel a special message, Mary was with God’s favor, not that she had done anything special to warrant it but that God had chosen to give it to her. God chooses to give us all something, we may not see it but there is something and in His eyes and heart we warranted being saved and Jesus was sent to us as a babe lying in an animal’s food trough. Why did God feel He had to go so far into poverty? Why did God believe that Jesus had to be born through illegitimate parents, away from their families and treated as though they were street people? I will not pretend to read God’s mind but what I see in it is that no sign or means of wealth status was given to Jesus. In some part of our world that means a lot to many people.
He is the redeemer King and friend of all who the world has cast out of its societal circles. Jesus is soon to be lying in the manger once again under someone’s tree or atop their television within a manger scene and once again He will allow Himself to be identified with those who are shunned and told by the world that they do not count and that they should just go somewhere else, “the inn is full.”
Jesus is our living present and gift given by a loving Father and God to all of us who are blessed and fortunate to have been awakened by the spirit of God through the workings of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is once again brought to the level of a defenseless infant who cries of hunger and dirty diapers, needing our attention. “Our attention”? Yes, our attention, yours and mine. It is our charge put upon us by the Holy Spirit to care for and nurture this Holy infant child who lives now in the manger of our hearts. We must feed Him with our time and clothe Him with our praises of gratitude. He waits to be washed by our tears and dried with the soft touch of our heart’s embrace. Jesus is the meaning and gift of this season, let us celebrate as Mary did and sing to God, you know the words…don’t you? My soul gives glory to the Lord and my spirit shall rejoice in God my savior, for He who is mighty has done great things and Holy is God’s name.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Knowing my need
I read something today that spoke about my discovering my point of need. That when it becomes clear to me that I am not the source of all that I need, that I must reach out and ask for help, then help will come. What kind of help would it be that I cannot give to myself, I ask? Have you found that answer for yourself yet?
I read this reflection today and looked over the scripture readings in the Message version of the new testament. I found there what it was that I cannot supply for myself. It is the making of the new me. The new me that God said would be done for my good and for the good of my friends and family. The new me would reach out to others in ways I do not know how. The new me would look different and talk different and would not hold grudges against others for their wrong doing against me. The new me would allow others to not only find a new friend in me but reach out of the wounded person that emerged from the world (me) and become someone that I only dreamed of being. I ask you, have you become new? Do you want to? Everyone tells themselves that they are just fine the way they are and no need to change. Change is painful and brings only discomfort and with that uncertainty. "What will I become with this new change, who will I become and will others still accept me?"
Does it always have to rely on what others think of us? Should it? If the ones closest to us truly love us and they do, then when we open ourselves to a new life will they not change with us? Maybe they want to change too? Maybe they are waiting for you to make the first step and that will give them license to move also?
Read here: http://www.myutmost.org/10/1006.html
Read scripture here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%201:%2014-17&version=MSG
As is always heard by the slogan on Niki - Just do it!
I read this reflection today and looked over the scripture readings in the Message version of the new testament. I found there what it was that I cannot supply for myself. It is the making of the new me. The new me that God said would be done for my good and for the good of my friends and family. The new me would reach out to others in ways I do not know how. The new me would look different and talk different and would not hold grudges against others for their wrong doing against me. The new me would allow others to not only find a new friend in me but reach out of the wounded person that emerged from the world (me) and become someone that I only dreamed of being. I ask you, have you become new? Do you want to? Everyone tells themselves that they are just fine the way they are and no need to change. Change is painful and brings only discomfort and with that uncertainty. "What will I become with this new change, who will I become and will others still accept me?"
Does it always have to rely on what others think of us? Should it? If the ones closest to us truly love us and they do, then when we open ourselves to a new life will they not change with us? Maybe they want to change too? Maybe they are waiting for you to make the first step and that will give them license to move also?
Read here: http://www.myutmost.org/10/1006.html
Read scripture here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%201:%2014-17&version=MSG
As is always heard by the slogan on Niki - Just do it!
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