Jesus - The Real Gift of Christmas!

Happy Holidays, Friends! Today I would like to share something my oldest son wrote. He said that he put into words what he had been studying. I was blessed by it and I pray that you all will be also.

Much of the ways we celebrate Christmas comes from our family traditions. But how often do we really, really celebrate Jesus' entrance into our world, or even think deeply about the true spirit of Christmas? The spirit that is meant to light up our hearts the way some decorations light up the tree.

Christmas is the day we celebrate the entrance of the eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all righteous, all  holy and glorious God into our world.  Now if we stop and consider that fact, and then read Luke 2:12, “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” For those of you who may not be aware, a manger is a trough or open box for livestock feed or fobber.

So, what’s wrong with that picture? The God of all ages; too glorious to look upon; the God before whom Moses and Isaiah fell down on their faces is in a filthy stable. Isaiah 9:6 says, "For unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." The person with those titles is in a filthy stable. Not in a palace or in a beautiful crib befitting the Son of God, but in a cold stinking stable lying in a common feeding trough used by beasts of burden.

God humbled Himself before us so that we would realize that there was nothing He wouldn’t do to bring us into a relationship with Him.

Today, Christmas is based on an exchange of gifts.  However, the tradition of exchanging of gifts began with our Heavenly Father.  The greatest gift came from Him! For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). This year, let's not get so caught up in getting that perfect gift for someone else that we forget to accept the ultimate gift the Lord is offering to us - a one-on-one relationship with Him.

With all that said, let the Church say amen and… AMEN!

And of course, Merry Christmas and May the Lord tremendous bless your New Year!        

8 Commands The Lord Commands Us To Do! (Part Two)

Command: To give an order to

Last week, we discussed the first four of eight commands that the Lord commands us to do. I pray that you were blessed by the first four. This week, let's take a look at the last four commands. We started in I Thessalonians 5:16 last time, and we're going to pick up in verse 20 today.

5.  Despise not Prophesyings. Prophesying means preaching and teaching. Some people prophesy of the present and the future; despising those prophesies means that we don’t want to hear any more teaching or preaching. Since prophesying tells us what God is saying about what’s going to happen or what’s happening right now, we must not despise those who are bringing the word of God to us and we must not shun it. Instead, we should open our ears and our hearts to receive the words the Lord is sending to us. Prophesying is not always about giving a message out, no, most of the time it’s just about listening to the word of God. Let’s not despise inspired instruction, exhortation or warning.

6. and 7.  Prove all Things and Hold Fast to that which is Good. We don’t need to hold fast to something if it's not good, but before we throw it away, we should prove it. You prove something by searching the word of God to see if that’s what the word is saying. When we take the time to dig into the word to see if that’s what the Lord is saying, He will give us a clearer vision of it and He will quicken it to us. We must be able to prove that God is the head of all things and that He is in all things. Always go back to the word, prove it, study it and then allow God to unveil His word to us.  We can (and should) hold fast to the name of Jesus. We should lift it up and  refuse to let it go, because it will save us.  Proverbs 22:1 tells us that "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold;" to that, we must hold fast.

8.  Abstain from all Appearances of Evil. Even though we may not intend to be evil in a certain situation, if it looks evil to someone else, God says that we should abstain. People are always watching and looking to see if what we are doing is Christian-like (i.e. if we are behaving the way they believe a Christian should behave). If what you are doing looks evil to them, they may start pointing fingers. It’s not always the case that we have done something wrong, however, that may be everybody else’s perception of the situation. If there's a possibility that something we are doing could appear to be evil to someone else, we should stay away from it... even when we have no evil intentions in our mind and our heart is pure. Just remember, if it appears evil, go the other way!

I'll leave you with these words from I Thessalonians 5:23, "And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through, separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah." (Amplified Bible)

As always, be blessed my friends!

With all that said, let the church say amen… and AMEN!

8 Commands The Lord Commands Us To Do! (Part One)

Command: To give an order to

As the end of the year is quickly approaching, I would like to share with you eight things that the Lord commands us to do. If we start practicing them NOW, we can take them over into the New Year with us and be blessed by doing them.

1.  Rejoice Evermore. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22) This means rejoicing eternally, not because we got a new house or a new car. We’re not talking about rejoicing material things here on earth, as those things are temporary. No, instead, we are talking about rejoicing in our spiritual blessings. Think about it - how much weight does God put on natural things? None - because those things are temporal - they are going to pass away. We must find something that’s going to be eternal. What do we know that’s eternal? The word of God, the spirit of God, and the will of God – that’s what! Those things are eternal and that’s what we should be rejoicing about.
2. Pray Without Ceasing. How do we pray without ceasing? By having an omnipresent pray closet. Meaning, no matter where we are, we are in prayer. We don’t have to go in to an actual closet or to church to pray. We could be driving down the road and in our heart we begin to pray. As we walk down the street, we can be in communication with the Father in our heart; we can have an intimate conversation with Him wherever we are. To pray without ceasing means to keep in constant contact with the Father in our hearts - giving Him thanks, repenting for our sins, forgiving those that have wronged us, and bragging on how good the Lord is to us on a daily basis. Be sure to have your omnipresent prayer closet so that you can pray without ceasing.
3. In Everything Give Thanks. What does “everything” include? Exactly what you think – EVERYTHING! If you opened your eyes this morning, you should be giving thanks. If our heart is still beating, if we are still taking breaths, if we can lift our hands, if we can walk - we should be giving thanks! That means that we give thanks every minute, every hour of the day. We always have something to give thanks for. Now, this may seem crazy to some, but this is what makes us a peculiar people. Every step we take today; every breath; every heartbeat is new and worthy of praise!
4. Quench Not The Spirit. The Spirit provides us with power, guidance, fire, anointing. What happens when we quench it? We diminish its power and the influence that leads us, guides us, and directs us. The Spirit is the very thing that guides us to the Lord. We don’t want to shut down the power that convicts us of our sins and corrupts things in our being, so that we can get rid of them. The Spirit of God needs to be able to move and search the deep areas of our heart so that we can see what’s there. BUT, if we quench that Spirit, we shut it down. We must allow the Spirit to lead and guide us.

Next week I will share the other four; until then, be blessed my friends!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!

Live Each Day as if it were Your Last!

This past Sunday, I heard a Pastor say that if we knew that we only had 30 minutes to live, he said we would do things differently; if we knew that we only had 15 minutes left, we would certainly do things much differently. We should not take life for granted, for as Matthew 24:42 reminds us, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour [or day, for that matter] your Lord doth come." With that in mind, wouldn't you agree that it's imperative that we live life each day as if it were our last day?

I also heard about a fatal car accident over the weekend involving a successful actor. You have to know that he thought that he would return home safely that evening. Again, since we don’t know the day or the hour that our Lord doth come, we must live life as if each day is our last one. And in doing that we have to remember that we can't sweat the small stuff, and that we should not hold on to the things that are not of the Lord - like anger, bad attitudes, blaming others for our actions. We can't allow depression to come in or spend so much time on things that just don't matter.

On the flip side of that, we don’t want to be like the rich fool that Jesus spoke of in Luke 12:19-21, "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"

We don’t want to live our lives as if we have it all under control, rather, we need to give credit where credit is due -- for example, this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Nothing belongs to us, not even our lives. What we have been commissioned to do is WORSHIP, as the word tells us in John 4:23, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him;" and in Deuteronomy 6:5, "And thou shall LOVE the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might;" and Psalms 48:1, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be PRAISED in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness."

As we're in the midst of this busy Christmas season, lets not allow ourselves to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of this world that we forget to live our life according to the word of God!

With all that said, let the church say amen and... AMEN!