December is here. The lights displays are up, the special holiday coffee flavors are out, we have been barraged by an endless cry to buy, buy, buy, and soon Christmas trees will be going up everywhere we turn. It’s easy to view all of these things as distractions to the true meaning of Christmas, the time that has been have set aside to remember the Incarnation, God coming among us through the birth of Jesus. But instead of dismissing all of the cultural trappings of Christmas as a distraction to the true meaning, may we be encouraged by what they remind us about the birth of Jesus.

The lights that we see remind us of the glory of God that shone around the angels in the night sky as they proclaimed the good news of the birth of Jesus. They also remind us that Jesus is the “Light of the World” and He calls us to let His light shine out of our lives for all the world to see. The constant cry to buy more and more gifts reminds us of the greatest gift of all, Jesus, God with us, our Savior and Lord, who out of love gave up the glory of heaven to bring us the gift of life.

The Christmas trees remind us of the wooden cross on which Jesus came to die to pay the price for the sin of the world, so that through faith in Him we may find peace with God, forgiveness, salvation and life. And all of the special flavors of the season remind us of Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”

As you experience the lights, trees, gifts, flavors, and even the advertisements of this season, take time to give God thanks for coming among us and offering to us the greatest gift in the world, the gift of eternal life.

In Christ,

Mark

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  I Thessalonians 5:18

In recent weeks I experienced an exhaustive time of what seemed to be nonstop activity. It was a time of late to bed and early to rise, with each day filled with more activity than there were hours in the day to get it all done. Most all of the activity was good and were things I was looking forward to, but the pace left me rather low on both physical and emotional energy. As I was praying about how I was feeling the Spirit put upon my heart the song “Give Thanks” by Henry Smith.

“Give thanks with a grateful heart,

Give thanks to the Holy One,

Give thanks because He’s given

Jesus Christ, His Son.

And now let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

Let the poor say, ‘I am rich because of what the Lord Has done for us.’

Give thanks. Give thanks.”   CCLI #2303

For the rest of the day I made that song my prayer and as I prayed back to the Lord the song that He had put on my heart, He filled me with a renewed sense of His grace and peace; He gave me energy and strength; and He met my needs in ways that I might not have even thought to ask.

During the month of November I encourage you to take time to remember, and even write down, all of the reasons you have to give the Lord thanks. And then take time each day to give Him thanks for who He is in creation, for who He is in your life and for all that He has done for you.

Giving thanks to the Lord; it’s such a simple thing to do but it brings us in line with God’s will and it sets His power loose in our lives like nothing else can.

With Thanksgiving,

Mark

I really like my digital camera. I like the vibrant colors it captures, the zoom and wide angle settings options it gives me, the clear picture indicator, the auto flash and auto advance, and that I can shoot video with sound. What I don’t like is the fact that lately the rechargeable battery isn’t holding a charge.  Without power the camera does none of those things. Without power it cannot fulfill its potential and becomes nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

When it comes to living for Jesus and reflecting His truth, grace and love to the world, we need to stay charged with His power, let’s consider four power sources that God gives us as we live with Jesus.

Ephesians 1:19 and 20 tell us that the power God wants to work in our lives is the same power that He exerted in Jesus when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. Resurrection power has conquered sin and death, it breaks the bonds that hold us captive and it gives us the power to live for Jesus in a way that proclaims His truth, grace and love for all to see.

Ephesians 3:10-12 tell us that God gives us His wisdom, which is a power that defeats the work of the forces of evil and the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. The wisdom of God helps us to know right from wrong, gives us knowledge so we know how to live and can keep us from falling prey to the destructive schemes of the enemy. God’s wisdom is a source of power that we cannot afford to miss.

Philippians 2:5-11 speak to the power of humility, as demonstrated by Jesus, who being in very nature God, willingly left His throne in heaven, making Himself nothing, to die for the sins of all people. Humility is often an overlooked power source in the lives of believers but it has the power to disarm many of the threats that come against us and to lovingly reveal the truth of Jesus to the world around us.

Acts 1:1-8 tell us that the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be witnesses for Jesus. Being a witness can take many different forms in both word and deed, but what it all comes down to is living in a way that brings glory to God, which we are empowered to do as the Holy Spirit unleashes His power in and through our lives.

May we lived filled with God’s power and fulfill the potential that God has placed in us by staying connected to Jesus and all of the sources of power that He has made available to us. May we as individual believers and as a church, spend time each day with Jesus, allowing Him to fill us with resurrection power, with the power of His wisdom, with the power of humility, and with the power of His Holy Spirit.

In Christ,  Mark

Recently I was thinking about how every job has its own set of frustrations. Take for example a teacher, just when it seem like a student has mastered a new skill he forgets how to do it (or maybe that was just a frustration for my teachers). Or a custodian, who cleans a building from top to bottom, making the place shine, only to have it get dirty the next day. But as I thought about it, I decided that one of the most frustrating jobs in the world would have to be being my GPS.

Quite often I use my GPS as a general guideline rather than the only way to get to my set destination. For example, recently I programmed a destination in Seattle, knowing full well that I wanted to avoid the freeway, which was the way I knew the GPS would take me. I just wanted the directions for the end of the drive, from the place where I would have gotten off the freeway.

So mile after mile I ignored every direction the GPS was giving me until the last mile or so of the trip. If my GPS was a real person she would have been very frustrated by my actions and I suspect that every future time that I programmed a new destination she would ask me if that was really where I wanted to go or was I just going to ignore all of her hard work like I so often do?

That got me to thinking about how we seek, listen to and follow the directions that God wants to give us. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

When we seek and receive God’s direction we can’t treat His leading as I do my GPS, basically saying, “Thanks for the direction but I’ll decide for myself where and when to go.” No, if we want to live in God’s will and experience the life that He has for us we must follow as He leads, without trying to figure out how we can improve on His plan.

To seek and follow God’s will puts us in a place where He can work in and through our lives in some incredible ways. So take time each day to seek His will, invite God to direct you through your day and then follow as He leads. And as you seek and God leads, be looking for all that God is doing in your life and in the lives of the people you touch as you follow His plan for you.

Seeking and Following,

Mark