What a mess, unfinished business!

“Handle paper once.”  The woman leading the training session was talking about how to make an office efficient, how to keep the  work stream flowing. She elaborated, “ Don’t let things go. Finish things you start, whenever possible, before moving on to another project.”  That advice has stayed with me and I try to follow it to this day. When I open mail, I process it instead of laying it aside.  I return phone calls on the same day that I get them, if at all possible.  It’s so much better to start a new day looking ahead than working on yesterday’s business. If a pile of half-done projects builds up around us, it can leave us paralyzed, unwilling or unable to tackle any of them. 

Does your life have a bunch of unfinished business hanging around?   

Are you unable to move forward confidently because there are so many open projects tying you to yesterday?  

 We need to learn to finish well.  It is not just business that we need to finish.  Unresolved conflicts and unkept promises will weigh us down, too!

Do you feel like you are stuck, living the same day in time over and over again?  Sometimes life feels like an endless loop, doesn't it? We awaken to meet the same responsibilities, to go through the same chores, in the same ritual. Yes, of course, there is routine in all of life. However, if we are not finding new challenges, learning new things, and creating new opportunities, it may well be because we have left behind too many things that are unfinished.  It takes a lot of courage to look back on life and see where we have walked away from a relationship without making things right, without trying to work on reconciliation and/or understanding, but it’s critically important to do so.  It’s hard to admit that we abandoned our responsibility at some point in time and left people hanging.  We need to go back, re-examine something we have done, some experience we have gone through, and put it to rest. 

Failed? Accept responsibility, seek forgiveness, make restitution; move on! 

Been hurt? Offer forgiveness, release the person to God’s justice, and leave it behind.

Left confused by disappointment? Can’t find an answer?  You can keep circling the issue, stuck in that moment, or you can consciously choose to leave it with God in faith, and take up today’s work.

Sinned terribly against yourself, others, or God?  You can live in perpetual regret, or you can finish it!  Yes, confession, defined in the Bible as ‘saying the same thing about our actions that God says,’ allows us to find His forgiveness. Asking another’s forgiveness, with sincerity,  will often provide us a kind of freedom we did not think was possible.  We need to learn to forgiven ourselves, too.  That’s not the same as excusing our sins. We look at our sin, face on, own it; then leave it with the Lord.

God finishes His work!  You and I are “His workmanship.” The Word promises that He won’t walk off leaving us in a mess. “I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

At the end of his life, Paul reflected on the things he had done in a letter to his protégé, Timothy. I aspire to living in a way that these could be my words at the end as well. How about you? "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:6-8, NKJV)

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Find Us Faithful

We're pilgrims on the journey

Of the narrow road,

And those who've gone before us

Line the way;

Cheering on the faithful,

Encouraging the weary,

Their lives a stirring testament

To God's sustaining grace.

Oh may all who come behind us

Find us faithful!

May the fire of our devotion

Light their way!

May the footprints that we leave,

Lead them to believe,

And the lives we live

Inspire them to obey.

Oh may all who come behind us

Find us faithful.

Surrounded by so great

A cloud of witnesses,

Let us run the race

Not only for the prize.

But, as those who've gone before us

Let us leave to those behind us

The heritage of faithfulness

Passed on through godly lives.

Jon Mohr

© 1987 Jonathan Mark Music (Admin. by Gaither Copyright Management)

Birdwing Music (a div. of EMI Christian Music Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

A Flair for the Dramatic?

A Flair for the Dramatic?

P.T. Barnum built a career on providing entertainment.  His show, which was titled  "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome," traveled the pre-TV, 19^th century United States, attracting people to a show full of freaks, oddities and performers who appeared to be doing things that defied death.  Most of the show was faked, but the illusions brought in the crowds. For an hour or so, for a small fee, he gave them a break from life.

It concerns me that our Christianity is sometimes reduced to an hour on Sunday morning that aims at providing an emotional experience built around music, or inspirational stories, or even highly dramatic preaching. Sinclair Ferguson observes that much of best-selling Christian literature is focused on “the signs of Christ’s return (“very soon”), with unusual, dramatic experiences (set forth as “genuine” Christianity), or with dramatic gifts (“the signs” of the Holy Spirit).”  In fact, we are called to be disciples of Christ, a word that shares roots with the word ‘discipline.’   Our life in Christ is not really about drama, at all! It is about learning to live like Jesus Christ, trained in godliness, pleasing our Father. Ferguson says, “The thrust of biblical teaching emphasizes the long-term, patient, undramatic building of Christian character through unspectacular means.”

Before you object that I have stolen the joy of faith, I’ll remind us that the true Christians demands a spiritual transformation.  He does not call us to be dreary souls who plod along the Way to Heaven, repressing all things happy or celebratory.  There is ‘joy in serving Jesus!’  The Cross and Resurrection lift the heavy weight of guilt from our shoulders, assure us that we are children of God, and give us the certain hope of eternal life at home with our Abba. Could there be anything better?

Well, for some Christians apparently that is not enough! They want to be thrilled again and again. So every now and then, they change churches seeking some new experience.  Today they are chanting with monks, next year  they will be dancing with charismatics, the year after that they will be looking for yet another way to ‘make it all new,’ again.  Christ calls us beyond such things to maturity.  Yes, the goal of our faith is not to be charged up with excitement yet again. It is to be "reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming." (Ephesians 4:13-14, NIV)   Grown-up Christians no longer need to fight about secondary doctrine because they have learned about love that brings unity. They won’t argue about speaking in tongues, End Time issues, or modes of baptism. Yes, they have convictions but those are secondary to their love for Christ’s Body, the Church.  They love Jesus Christ and are capable of explaining their faith’s roots in Him.  His character is evident in their lives demonstrated by the fruit of the Spirit - " love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)

Mature Christians are servants, faithful and reliable.  Instead being childishly insistent on what ‘makes me happy’ they gladly accept their calling in Him to become "God’s people (prepared) for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up." (Ephesians 4:12, NIV)

Are you ready to leave the need for the drama behind?

Are you ready for discipleship?

Here’s a word from the Word.  May the Lord give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to His Church.  "So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!   (Hebrews 6:1, Message)

____________

Stinking to high Heaven?

Stinking to high Heaven?

Francis Chan, author and pastor, is quoted as saying that one of the reasons he stepped away from pastoral ministry is that his constant emphasis on applied Christianity was ‘bugging some people.’  In short, his failure to compromise Christ’s claim to be both Lord and Savior became an irritant to some.  Can I stand up and cheer now? Chan is a gracious, thoughtful man who offends only by being truthful and faithful to the Gospel. I could only hope that part of my legacy would be that I provoked people to consider the claims of Christ on their lives.

By and large, American Christianity is a weak brew steeped to meet the tastes of the masses. Strong flavors of holiness are heavily sugared by promises of divine favor, by insistence that God is willing to overlook our self-love and careful preservation of our ‘rights’ if only we will ‘let Jesus come into our heart.’  The invitation to discipleship is replaced with coffee and donuts in the church’s café. We make much of ‘life to the full’ that Jesus promised while all but ignoring the fact that He said the route to that life runs straight through death to Self and requires that we carry our cross.  Yes, such preaching ‘bugs’ people and bugged people leave our churches; and empty pews don’t pay mortgages or salaries.  So, bring on the culturally sensitive spiritual talks and forget the sermons that point to His Lordship, to godliness, and to true intimacy with Christ.

Imagine Paul conducting a seminar on church growth and explaining how to present the call of Christ in a way that does not offend.  To any real student of the Scripture that is unimaginable.  Read the challenge he was inspired to send to the Corinthians (and to us). "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NIV)  Let me rephrase his words:  “God allowed us to walk a path that led to great pressure. It squeezed us nearly to death, and in the process, released a beautiful fragrance from our lives.”

And, what of that smell?   "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." (2 Corinthians 2:15-17, NIV)   To some it stunk like a dead corpse; to others it was like a spring-time morning!  What is he saying?  In fact, he says that real Christians will sometimes be offensive! Spirit-filled Christians will polarize people. They will be so full of God that just their presence will provoke a reaction.  Not very culturally friendly, is he?

Before we run off to to see how many people we can bug, let’s be clear that the Bible is not suggesting that Christians must become socially inept, deliberately offensive, rude people in the Name of Christ.  At a funeral at which I spoke recently I gave those gathered the opportunity to stand and share a memory about the deceased. One man felt it was his holy duty to stand up and remind people of the necessity of being ‘born again, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, so they would go to Heaven.’ He went on to point out that Hell awaited those who refused.  Did he speak truthfully? Yes. Was his presentation wisely timed or graciously presented? No.  He bugged people, for sure, but not in the sense of which the Word speaks. 

He became the issue not Christ Jesus, our Lord. If people take more not of you or me than they do of Jesus at work in us, then something is amiss in our discipleship.  If our message is provocative, let it be for who we are, not just for what we say.  It’s easy, a cheap shot if you will, to throw bombs of condemnation at others.  When we are walking in step with the Spirit, He will create a gentle demeanor and cause our lives to have such rich flavors that those who are rebelling against God will avoid us simple because of the conviction of heart that they feel when they are around us.

Here’s a word from the Word. I pray that the truth provokes us today to consider whether we are reeking of the fragrance of Christ in our world. "For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." (2 Corinthians 4:6-10, NIV)

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Let Your Glory Fall

Father of creation,

Unfold Your sov'reign plan.

Raise up a chosen generation

That will march through the land.

All of creation is longing

For Your unveiling of pow'r.

Would You release Your anointing?

Oh God, let this be the hour!

Let Your glory fall

In this room.

Let it go forth from here

To the nations.

Let Your fragrance rest

In this place,

As we gather to seek Your face.

Ruler of the nations,

The world has yet to see,

The full release of Your promise

The church in victory.

Turn to us, Lord, and touch us

Make us strong in Your might.

Overcome our weakness

That we could stand up and fight.

Let Your kingdom come!

Let Your will be done!

Let us see on earth,

The glory of Your Son!

David Ruis

© 1992 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055

Make it memorable

For me, the best part of Christmas is gift-giving. My life is full of good things and wonderful people. My needs and wants are few. Seeing the joy that comes from presenting a truly thoughtful gift makes my day. My wife, Bev, is a master of gift giving! She seldom just ‘gets a gift.’ She thinks about the person, plans for the presentation, listens for clues, and when she gives - she seldom misses the mark.

Would you like to bring joy to somebody this Christmas? 
Here are some suggestions for giving.

1. Make it personal.  I remember a special gift that didn’t cost a fortune, but it made an impression! It is a ‘book’ my son, Sean, created for me a few years ago in which he shared ways that I was a good father. I still can’t read what he wrote in it without getting choked up.  The best gifts don’t come from Macy’s; believe me.

2. Give yourself. Time is the most valuable commodity we have.  Man of us would rather write a check than give 2-3 hours  of our time.  Instead of sending a gift, make an offer of a night of babysitting, or to do some gardening, or go spend an evening with an elderly person who is alone,  …  get creative. But, remember, the gift of yourself is better than a gift card, almost any time!

3. Enhance the value of another. Pay somebody a sincere compliment and watch them light up.  Take the time to sit down and write a paragraph that tells somebody how her life makes the world a better place.  Tell them they are a great Mom, or an inspiring Christian, or a super-listener, or a hard worker, or… you’re getting the idea, right?  Our church had “Pastor Appreciation” day in October. I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the monetary gift (it was nice!) but the most meaningful thing to me was hearing the Deacons and Elders speak about specific ways that my service has blessed them.  Their words were a blessing spoken into my life. Critics abound. Be an encourager.

4. Sacrifice without seeking notice!  Find out a way to take care of a need for somebody, then do it anonymously, if possible. Few things bring me greater joy than hearing about a need and taking steps to meet it, whether that’s putting the person in touch with somebody who can help, writing a check, or praying earnestly.  When we give from our own need, God blesses that kind of sacrifice. Remember the widow that put a penny in the offering?  The Lord told His disciples, she gave more than the rich guys who gave out of their abundance.   Then too, Jesus reminds us to be,  “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. … Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out." (Matthew 6:1, 4 The Message)   

I took all those cues from the One whose Gift inspires this Season.  That familiar verse says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NLT)  He gave Himself, for us, at great cost.  My prayer is that we will be changed by His gift and then, from the richness of grace poured into us, become people who give the best gifts. 

Here’s a word from the Word. "For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:15-17, NIV)

________________

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

George Matheson, public domain

And you tho't you knew about Christmas (a reprise)

Compiled from excerpts from
Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas (Zondervan).

Up until about 350 years ago, the only universally celebrated Christian holiday was Easter. Christ's birth was an important part in the Bible but since no date is given, Christians chose different days to remember, with early January being the most common. Ultimately the Roman Catholic Church settled on December 25 in an attempt to erase Saturnalia, a Roman celebration centered on worship of Saturn and involving a lot of drinking, partying and sexual immorality. Church leaders felt that if Christmas were celebrated at that time, the depraved behavior would change. They were partially right. People forgot the Roman holiday, but continued the same kinds of partying on Christmas.

For centuries the time of Christ's Mass was a season of drinking and violence so many smaller holiness sects of Christianity stopped celebrating Christmas entirely. Believe it or not, for Americans, the national holiday of Christmas, the joyful day of Peace on Earth, is only about 160 years old. The Puritans who settled New England banned Christmas by law in 1659! The prohibition was repealed after a couple of decades, but Christmas celebrations continued to be frowned on in New England until the middle of the 1800's. That was true of much of the United States. Even Congress met on Christmas Day until the mid-1800's.

A Christian, an educator and a father named W. Clement Moore, first published, "T'was The Night Before Christmas." This poem established Santa Claus as an important part of the American Christmas, making the date much more secular. His poem opened the door that brought about the beginnings of the kind of celebrations we practice. The popularity of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," one of his works written to protest the brutality visited on the poor in 18th century England, and the introduction of the Christmas tree tradition brought to England and America by Prince Albert from Germany, made the the holiday we know.

Moore's poem made gifting giving a much more important part of Christmas. For English and American Christians, who for centuries had little positive to embrace at Christmas, it was Santa Claus who saved the holiday and brought Jesus back into the spotlight.

Santa Claus? Two wonderful Christian men really began the Santa Claus legend through their selfless actions and their faith. The first was Nicholas, a priest who gave presents to poor peasant children in the third century, even before the church actually recognized the holiday. The second was a devout duke in Borivoy, who became the leader of Bohemia at a very early age. Each Christmas Eve, Wenceslaus would go through the snow giving out gifts to his poorest subjects. We now remember him through the old carol he inspired, "Good King Wenceslaus." From those roots we have Saint 'Claus, or Santa Claus!

Christmas 'colors' - The gold is easy; this is the color of royalty and the most precious metal on earth. It was also one of the gifts to Jesus from the wise men. The red and green can really be traced to several different important traditions. Did you know that holly and ivy, wreaths, Christmas trees, and mistletoe, were all pagan symbols used in various nature rites during the long European winters? The green was a reminder that new life would return. It represented life that went on through the difficult times of winter, just like faith that could not die in the difficult times of life. Gradually Christians adopted these symbols as part of their celebrations. The red reminded Christians that Christ's blood was shed on the cross for sins, the real reason for His coming to earth in the first place.

X in Xmas? Few know that using X as a sign for Christ predates even our initial celebrations of Christmas. X or "Chi" is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek. Many early followers of Christ were Greek and would place an X over their doors or wear something on their persons with this letter to reflect their faith as a disciple of Christ. For more than 1,000 years, the church spelled out Christmas with just an X. It was not done to take Christ out of Christmas, but to put Him there where everyone, even those who could not read, could understand that this day of worship was for the Son of God.

While the Bible says nothing about December 25, blinking lights, decorated trees, or a rotund jolly man dressed in a red suit - it does tell us about God's Gift - 'wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.' Angels announced the birth as a reason for great praise and as a sign of peace and the arrival of God's favor  for all of humanity. A world without Jesus Christ is beyond imagination. His birth and life changed history, and His death and resurrection changes our destiny, promising us eternal life.

Here's a word from the Word on which to meditate today--
"...Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! . . . that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
(Philippians 2:5-8, 10-11, NIV)

"Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King!