December 1, 2016

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:34-35

Love is never out of season but the Christmas season is when love shines the brightest. Love is at the heart of the Christmas story because God's love was expressed through the gift of His beloved Son, Jesus.

So, love and Christmas are inseparable. Christmas is so meaningful because love is so powerful.

Love is powerful because it brings significance from the one who loves to the one who is loved.

Love is powerful, too, because it brings security!

When you love someone and they love you back it gives you a sense of security. You know you are not alone in life when someone loves you. You know there is someone you can counsel with and count on if life gets tough. You know there will always be someone who will celebrate with you in the good times.

Security is why God sent Jesus!

Because of God's great love Jesus came to secure your eternal salvation by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. He secured your victory over death when He rose from the dead. He secured a personal relationship with you when He sent the Holy Spirit.

In an insecure world, you need the security that comes from loving Jesus and being loved by Him! 

That is why Jesus came at Christmas! You can be secure in that truth! 

God's love brings significance! 

God's love brings security!

Love has a Name and it's Jesus!

Love Has A Name

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." John 3:16-17 (The Message)

There is good reason that more songs have been written about love than any other single topic. Love is the most powerful emotion human beings are capable of giving or receiving. We all crave it. 

Love can help you more than anything else and it can also hurt you more than anything else.

Genesis one tells us that each of us have been created in the image of God and I believe the need to give and receive love is the remnant of His image hard-wired into our nature.

One reason love is powerful is because it can give you significance and you need to feel significant. 

Your parents play a crucial role in making you feel significant by the manner in which they loved you. But if they failed to do that then there is an even more significant Person Who loves you! His name is Jesus!

That is the good news of John 3:16! God expressed His infinite, everlasting and unconditional love for you by sending His only Son to die for you on the cross! 

Get your mind around that if you can! The most Significant Being in the universe gave His most significant Gift to demonstrate the significance He places in your salvation to eternal life!

Get your heart around that and you will feel the embrace of His significant love!

One of the great gifts of Christmas is the gift of His Significant love!

Love has a name and it's JESUS!

November 29, 2016

"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Galatians 4:4-5

Christmas happened at the perfect time and Christmas means that God's time is always perfect! God is always on time! He has never been late!

I am sure you have wondered about His timing. His timing is almost always different from ours.

Probably Joseph and Mary questioned God's timing. His plan sure messed up theirs. You know that nice big wedding they were planning? It never happened because God's timing was different than theirs.

And remember that census thing when they they had to go all the way to Bethlehem for Joseph to register? Bad timing! Mary was extremely pregnant when that all happened. They had to pack up their bags and hop on a donkey and ride over bumpy roads through rugged terrain. Not a comfortable trip under normal circumstances but REALLY bad when you are nine months pregnant. Terrible timing!

Mary and Joseph were not the only ones traveling to Bethlehem for the census, but they did come far and they did travel slowly. So, when they got to this small town with limited lodging they arrived at a bad time - after everyone else! By the time they went to check in to the inn they where left out of the inn because the inn was out of rooms! Not good timing.

The timing was terrible for Mary and Joseph! There is no two ways about it! God's plan for these two teens was not timed for their comfort or convenience. Were you to have pulled them aside for a moment and asked them, "Hey, guys, what do you think of God's timing?" I am sure they would have been hard pressed to give you a positive answer about God's timing.

But, the important fact is this, they obeyed God! If they questioned His timing they didn't doubt His purpose. They understood that even though God's plans messed up the timing of their plans and caused them terrible stress, they knew there is never a good time to disobey God. That time never comes!

The writer of the Epistle to the Galatians acknowledges that God's timing was the perfect when He sent His Son to save the world. Christmas proves that God's timing is always right. Mary and Joseph had trouble seeing it then, but they know it now!

Are you struggling with God's timing in your life? Have you been waiting for Him to do something that seems overdue? Are you way past impatient and bordering on doubtful? Let me point you to the Christmas story to remind you - GOD IS ALWAYS ON TIME!

Christmas proves it!

November 28, 2016

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him 'Emmanuel' which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

There is so much good news that surrounds the Christmas story! It tells us a lot of good things about God and how much He loves us.

In two separate accounts about the coming of Christ the good news is revealed regarding God's desire to be with us. He was to reveal Himself to us. He wants to be known by us. He wants to fellowship with us. Amazing isn't it?

We have always known that God is for us. He created us! The Old Testament is filled with the news that God is for us. It it rife with demonstrations of His power and might on our behalf. There is no way you can read the Old Testament and not conclude that God is for us.

If there is someone you want to be for you it is most certainly God!

The wonder of the Christmas story is how a God Who is for us came to be with us. It happened in a most amazing and wonderfully peculiar way! Only the mind of God could conjure such a perfect plan! All the Gods of the pagans demanded that their adherents somehow measure up to their status. But our God, the true God of the universe, humbled Himself and condescended to us!

More amazing than the fact that He did it is how He did it. God called a teen-aged virgin to be the mother of His Son. This child would have to be conceived by the Holy Spirit so He could be born sinless. Why sinless? Because only a sinless Son could become an atoning sacrifice for sin. Perfect!

God, through the mystery of the incarnation, came to be with us because He was for us!

But the news is even better! The God Who is FOR us came to be WITH us because He wants to be IN us!

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"  John 1:12

God's desire is for us to receive Him through faith in Jesus so He can fill us with His Spirit and transform our heart and mind. He wants us to deliver us from our spiritual death and darkness and lead us into His life and light! When He does that He tranforms our mind and gives us eternal life.

So here is the wonderful news of the Christmas miracle, the God Who was FOR us, came to be WITH us, so He could be IN us - because He wants us to be WITH Him for eternity!

Christmas is "Emmanuel" - God with us! 

That changes everything! 

Will you let Him change you?

November 27, 2016

"Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books." II Peter 1:3-9 (The Message)

There is no reason or no excuse for failing to grow. God has built growth into everything that is healthy and alive. Peter reminds us here that God has sovereignly and supernaturally provided Christ-followers with everything they need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In this series of blogs at the end of this Thanksgiving week I have been examining how growth happens:

1) You must know what to know, then

2) You must grow in what you know, then

3) You must know how to continue to grow!

There are many things you can know and many things to know and many things you'll never know but the one thing you MUST know is Jesus!

Do you know Him?

The purpose of learning is to live better! What's the point of always learning but never applying your knowledge to every day living? Wisdom is the diligent learning of life-giving principles and then using that knowledge to improve your life skills.

Are you living wisely?

When you fully appreciate the importance and necessity of growth you will devise and implement a plan to continue growing!

Do you have one?

If so, stay at it! Since God has placed within you all you need to keep growing through His Spirit intentionally draw deeply from that well!

But if you don't I will recommend one taught to me years ago by none other that John Maxwell, one of the best-known and respected experts on personal growth!

The Plan

1) Make it a practice to personally encourage at least five other people every week! Whether it is a phone call, a tweet, an email, a text or a card via snail mail lift others up along life's way!

2) Read a chapter (at least) in the Bible daily! Billy Graham testifies that he reads one Proverb and three Psalms every day thus reading the Proverbs and the Psalms through every month! Imagine how that could stimulate spiritual growth!

3) Read a chapter a day in a good book! If you read a chapter per day you will read a book a month (at least). Leaders are readers!

4) Pray and journal every day! I have found there is something in the discipline of the empty page that inspires me to pray. The additional benefit is being able to periodically review and be reminded how God has answered prayers!

5) Schedule a day alone with God every month! Take your Bible and a pen and your notebook and listen to God in a quiet secluded spot. Write down what you hear from Him and pray for wisdom to apply it. If you can't do a day make it a half-day. You may just find it to be your best day of the month!

If you fail to plan you are planning to fail! It may be trite but it is true!

Are you planning to grow?

November 26, 2016

"Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." II Peter 3:17-18

The aging Apostle Peter gives a stern warning as you might expect from a spiritual father and a concerned pastor: "If you fail to continue growing you will fall prey to false teaching and drift from the truth."

As a Christian spiritual growth is not optional. Just like any other aspect of life what doesn't grow begins to die.

Spiritual growth has three aspects that I am exploring in my message this week:

1) You must know what you need to know

2) You must grow in what you know

3) You must know how to keep growing

In a previous post I made the point that what you must know is Jesus. All spiritual growth begins with a personal saving spiritual through faith in Jesus Christ.

There is little value in knowing anything until you know Jesus.

Once you know Jesus you are to grow in that saving grace and in the knowledge of Jesus. The simple truth is until you live it you haven't learned it.

• Spiritual growth is a pattern

"Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus." I Peter 1:3-8

• Spiritual growth is progressive

Growth happens as you build on what you know by showing it in your behavior and in your speech and in your attitude and actions. In our Scripture text there are eight aspects of spiritual growth that lead to godliness. Each of those build on each other.

Progressive means that growth starts at some point and takes you to a better place. Progress can be measured as can the lack of progress.

• Spiritual growth is practical

Spiritual growth is evidenced in every day life. You know you have grown spiritually when you find the strength to overcome a trial or a temptation for the first time. 

When you overcome a habit that has bound you for years you know you have grown in your spirit.

Or, when you find the courage to take a stand for Christ at your workplace you know you have grown.

Growth happens when you find the faith to live the spiritual truths and principles you have learned.

Spiritual growth is not a theory or a philosophy it is belief expressed in daily behavior. It is being a doer of the Word not just a hearer of the Word.

What is the evidence of spiritual growth in your life? Can you point to practical examples?

November 25, 2016

"Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." II Peter 3:17-18

Peter, the great fisherman turned apostle, offers an urgent admonition to the believers in his day. "As you get closer to the final days make sure you grow closer to God!"

Since spiritual growth is a high priority for the believer knowing how to grow is vital!

Growth begins by knowing what you need to know!

Every journey has a starting point and the starting point for growth is knowing what you need to know. Knowing what you need to know is determined by where you want to go! 

Since the context of this Scripture text has to do with the last days before Jesus comes the issue is where do you want to go when it all ends? Do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go to hell?

Where you want your life to go determines what you need to know. If you want to live forever in Heaven then what you need to know is Jesus! If Heaven doesn't interest you then it doesn't matter what you know.

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", says Peter. And that's where spiritual growth begins because that's where spiritual life begins.

You can't grow until you know what you need to know and what you need to know is Jesus! And you need to know Him as your Savior!

Do you?