In The World

"Guide me in your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long." Psalm 25:5
     Have you ever felt like you just weren't strong enough to go out into the world? Have you felt like you just wanted to hang with your friends from Church because they believe what you believe? Yeah, I admit it. Sometimes I do feel like that... It's safe. It's easy. It's comfortable.
      But if we only hung out with our friends from Church and didn't venture out into the real world, then who would we share God with? Who would really ever get the chance to see how God is working in our lives? How would our churches grow? How would anyone who didn't believe ever get the chance to see how God is molding and changing our lives?
      Yeah, I know... sometimes it doesn't really feel like we have changed.... and sometimes we think that we would be poor examples of someone who is giving their life to God, but yet they see it... sometimes I think they see it more clearly than we do... only they don't always know what it is..... We need to be out in the world. We need to be in the world and yet not of it....  
       What does that really mean? I have a rather vague idea of it... I think it means that we must build relationships outside of church. Relationships with people who don't put God first. Relationships where we can build a trust with the other person that will allow them to get to know us. We don't have to push God on them. But we will need to share that we trust God and count on Him to guide and direct our lives. They should be able to see that God is most important to us by how we live our lives.
       We should not be living in a giant conflict of interest... we should live our lives governed by what God wants. It's not a show. We aren't supposed to be out there acting holy or anything, but if we are doing God's will in our lives, we will make honest, noble decisions in our day to day lives. We will seek to do right and not to take shortcuts. We will be faithful friends who treat others with respect and really care for them. This will be noticed by others.
        They will know that "something" is different about you. They will know that you really do care, and that it is not a fake caring like so many others do... God will guide you in how to care for others if you only let Him.
        Dear Lord, please help me to be a light to someone. Please help me to live my life in such a way that others will see You working in my life. That they will see Your love when they see me. Help me to be a true and faithful friend to someone. To truly care. To truly reach out and share You with them. Help me to not hide in the shadows of my church but to go out into the world and to reach out with Your guidance to share Your love and Your word with others. Help me to be a light that they might see You shining brightly inside me.... and please help my friends to do the same. My faith is in You... My hope is in You... and my trust is in You.

A Very Special Gift

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."      Isaiah 7:14

     Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah prophesied about His birth.  How did he know.   That alone should be enough to prove that Jesus was indeed the long awaited Messiah.  

      God prepared the way.  Prepared the way for us to recognize His Son when He arrived on earth.   If only people had listened to God's word and taken heed, they would have known who He was right away.   John the Baptist recognized Him.  Would you recognize Him?   

      I am awed when I think about the birth of Jesus.   Just the fact that God would send His own Son into the world to atone for the bad things that we have done and that we will do.   I know that I have done a lot of bad things.  I know that I will probably continue to do bad things as long as I live.   I will not want to do bad things, but indeed I will still do them.

       I am amazed that God spoke to people even back then and that they listened.  They did what He asked of them.   I know that it must not have been easy for either Mary or Joseph to do as God commanded.   I know that many folks today don't think that having a child before marriage is a bad thing but imagine what it was like back then.... I mean couldn't they like stone you to death for stuff like that?   And then Joseph married her knowing that it was not his son he would be raising.    Imagine the love that they both must have had for that child.   

       I know that I have known what it was to be an unwanted child.  I know the pain that being raised like that could cause.  And I have always believed that those children who find themselves adopted into families are really the most loved children in the world.   Why? Well that is easy... because the parents "chose" to adopt them.  They chose to bring a child into their home and to love that child and raise it as their own.  

       I know that Jesus was not adopted.   But still Mary and Joseph made a conscious decision to bring that child into the world and to raise Him as their own.   Like most adoptive parents they probably wrestled with the decision of when to tell Him the truth about his birthright,  but knowing that God would call Him just as He had called them, they probably told Him quite early.   The love that they must have felt for that child must have been overwhelming.  I wonder if they were aware of the sacrifice that He would one day make for you and me and all of mankind? After all that too was foretold in Isaiah and many other places in the old testament.

       Christmas has always been a very special time for me.   It has never been a "commercial" holiday for me.   It has always been celebrated quietly, behind closed doors.... just reading the story of Jesus' birth and pondering the gift that God gave to all of us on that day that Jesus was born.   I would have to agree that Jesus is indeed the "reason for the season".   

Merry Christmas to everyone  and a very special Birthday to Jesus

God Has Our Back

 "Have not I commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."        Joshua 1:9

        In the office where I work we have a Christmas Tradition.  We give gag gifts to our co-workers.   We search all year for just the right gag gift.  Something that embodies the person and yet makes everyone laugh.  Usually it is in reference to the "absolutely worst" part of your job.... and yes... it usually makes you laugh too.... 

        Well, last year our Grants writer got me good.  He gave me a bin pin that said "2010 already sucks".   It was funny because it was pretty much right on as the beginning of the year is always a nightmare for me as that is when I have to close out the grants.  It is usually a mad dash to spend any remaining funds before the drop dead date.   So for the first few days I wore that pin everywhere... even to church... it was a joke..... it was cute... but it became much too true to remain a joke.   Shortly into the new year my dad died and then it just got worse from there.   Needless to say I took the pin off and have not put it back on...

        During much of the year I have isolated myself from everyone around me.... I have not wanted to bring anyone else down.   I think that for the most part I am still doing that but I have let a few folks back in....  not many though....  But yes it has been a long and lonely year.

      It would be so easy to say that God had abandoned me during times when my life just seemed to stink.... but it would be a lie.   Because, you see... I have not been walking through this alone.   God has never left my side..... Oh, there have been many times where I have not seen His touch in my life.  Many times where I felt alone and abandoned.  There were times where I would not hear Him or feel Him in my life.    But yet He was always there.... waiting for me..... Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?  It's easy to  look back now as I do a "Year In Review" kind of thing on my life - and to see how He was there working in my life and I didn't even see Him.   Yep.  That's it exactly.  

       There are so many places in the bible where God tells us that He will not abandon us.... David speaks of that so many times in the Psalms.... and yet in many other places in the Psalms he is unable to see God working in his life, and He asks God "where are You?".   The pure and simple truth is that God IS always with us.  He NEVER leaves us.   We just sometimes take our eyes and our minds off of Him and forget to look to Him.  

      Maybe sometimes we put blinders on (kind of like putting on sunglasses at night).  The same things are out there.... they are already hard to see because it's dark out, but you have even more trouble seeing them because of the sunglasses.   The sunglasses are kind of like when we get all bummed out because of the circumstances of our lives.   The circumstances are there.  They are not going away (at least not by our power)... but if we take our eyes off of God and look to ourselves or others to fix the circumstances it will never happen.  We just can't do it. God is there.   He may or may not fix the circumstances, but if you wait for Him, and follow the lead that He gives you, He can surely navigate your way around or through the circumstances.

       Dear Lord, thanks for always having my back.  Even when I didn't realize I had a back. Thanks for being with my friends when they need you and can't see you working in their lives.   Thanks for forgiving us when we forget that you are always there.  Dude, You just rock!"