I Dare You to Celebrate Christmas This Year!

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God" -Luke 2:13 

I was chatting with a mom earlier today and when she said "we don't celebrate Christmas" it caught me off guard. I asked why not and she said because her children think it's all about getting presents. I said "so wait, what does Christmas mean to you?" She said with a frank expression, "Jesus' birth," so I said "you do celebrate Christmas!"

We've been so brainwashed into thinking that the celebration of Christmas must entail presents, decorations, shopping, food, and the like. What if we skipped all of the black Friday and cyber Monday spending; ditched the decorations; and fasted on Christmas day....what if we simply came to worship the one and only Son of God who came down in the most humble of ways to save us? What if, starting today, as we begin to count down to the highly anticipated day, we dare to celebrate Christmas?

What's It Worth To You?

"And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him." -Luke 5:11 

Would you do that? If I'm being honest with myself, I'd have to say that would be really hard. When I picture the disciples bringing in their boats, I think about what my life's equivalent to that would be. They were walking away from their profession and subsequently their means of provision. It was what they knew..their comfort.

Are we willing to give up our jobs, or means of provision, or comforts? I think we need to confront the reality that if we've allowed Jesus into our hearts, we have already surrendered our lives to him, so we are continually "on deck," per say, to act on our surrender as he may call us to. The great news is, as Billy Graham said “God never takes away something from your life without replacing it with something better” and following Jesus is the greatest thrill ride you could ever imagine.

Maybe following Jesus is not what everyone has made it out to be...the guys in this movie decided to wrestle with just that

  

Nets Be Filled

"'Put out into the deep and let down your nets for the catch.' And Simon answered, 'Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.' And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking." -Luke 5:4-6 

 If you've ever been trying to share Jesus with someone, this passage most likely hits home at some level. Three simple things I love about this interaction Jesus has with Simon in Luke 5....

#1.) Simon kinda dares to try validate his prior efforts to Jesus. I want to say "Come on Simon..really?" but I know I'm guilty of this all too often. We see all over scripture encouragement like in Galatians 6:9  "and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up," yet still, once we've felt as though we've exhausted our own wisdom and resources, we start to object to the Lord's calling us to witness on the basis of having already "toiled." Until we've toiled alongside of Jesus, we've toiled in vain.
#2.) And that brings me to my second thought. It's so beautiful and simple- Simon caught nothing until Jesus came on the scene. Maybe we need to start inviting the Master Fisherman on our ventures at sea.
#3.) The nets were breaking. I don't know who everyone thinks developed the saying "go big or go home," but I bet it was Jesus. He doesn't act on a small scale nor is he a minimalist. Bringing people back to life, healing the blind, casting out demons, turning water to wine, feeding the five thousand, raising from the dead, the list goes on and on.

Brothers and sisters, be encouraged, if you feel the fish aren't biting, we serve the one and only God who fills nets. If you've never experienced empty nets, maybe it's time to start fishing and praying "nets be filled" type prayers. 

Chuck it like an old newspaper

"assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." -Ephesians 4:21-24 

This week, one of my patients was a dear old woman whom I spent a lot of time with simply because she was lonely. When I first walked in that morning, the first thing she asked me to do for her was to bring the trashcan closer to her bed. In her weathered, yet quite feisty words..."some dummy put it all the way on the other side of the room where I can't reach, some brains they had." I proceeded to put that trashcan right next to her bed at just the right angle so that she could slide the trash off the bed and into the can with ease. As I continued about my business with her, I wondered if she even had trash to put into the can.

We got cleaned up and I was straightening up her room for her when she very adamantly requested I toss the day-old newspaper. Knowing that reading the paper was just about the only available activity for her and its helpful in orienting confused patients, I asked to make sure that she didn't want it for later. "NO! I don't need that. Plus, I have enough problems of my own without reading about everyone else." When that day's paper came in later on at lunch time, before even taking it out of the bag, she wanted it in the trash.

I guess this is what we have to do with our old ways of life in the flesh, toss it like an old newspaper. When our old selves pop back up again, don't spend time to unwrap it and going exploring again into the depths of the past. Just like this woman needed to have the trashcan near her bedside in order to discard the paper, the truth is, if we are not walking alongside our Savior, we are completely incapable to shedding our former ways of life. Let's make getting rid of our old selves a first thing in the morning type priority and rejoice in the fact that Jesus has made himself available for us to be renewed!

Like that Loaf of Bread

"When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." -Luke 24:30-31 

I heard a great message on this passage about the disciples traveling to Emmaus with Jesus and the pastor (Steven Furtick Blessed and Broken) really put this verse into perspective. Just as Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it, so he does also with us in our own lives. We find ourselves in one of these four stages everyday. Whether the Lord is displacing you and making you uncomfortable with where he's placed you, or he has you in a joyous season of life....whether he's breaking you to bring you closer to him or he's giving your life to reflect the glory of his kingdom, you never leave his hands. Jesus doesn't put the bread down!

Verse 31 is a fantastic reminder of the reward to come when we surrender to God's hands and allow him to carry us through such stages according to his will. Then, our eyes will be opened to see that which satisfies our hearts!

All Things Beautiful

"He has made all things beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart , yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

I attended my first ever Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting yesterday, and I have to say it was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever witnessed. A good friend told me she thought that it was something that everyone should experience in their lifetime, and I could not agree more! If you want to see Ecclesiastes 3:11 in real life, go to one!

The most common expression in that one hour long meeting was "I am not the person that I was." That's the power of Jesus right there folks! Forget the picture of righteousness that gets tied to "religious" people. If we want to see the beauty of Jesus, we might just need to be willing to admit our ugliness.

During the meeting, some expressed their appreciation for the toils in their lives that made them who they have become today. I think that so wonderfully reflects the second part of this verse. According to study Bible, "find out" in this verse comes from the Hebrew meaning "figure out or comprehend by study." The writer of Ecclesiastes recognizes in this verse that God gives him a heart to figure things out but also limits him in doing so. This resolve is what I saw yesterday-- beautiful people willing to resign to God's will in using their mistakes, regardless of how "sinful" they were, to remake them into a people that reflect his Son.     

When Salvation's at Stake

"When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."-Acts 16:27 

I drive Philly's eclectic Broad Street multiple times a week these day, and I see a lot. This morning on my ten minute drive to church, I watched a man in a wheelchair in the middle of the turning lane, use his only leg to push himself along. I wondered where he was going. Does that man know that Jesus died for the sin that caused him to lose his other leg? I saw another go headfirst into a trash care, fishing around for something. I wondered what he was looking for. Does that man know that the God of the universe is available to provide him with more than the treasures of this world? Another man, eyes glossy and bagged bottle in hand, stumbled into oncoming traffic (me) and took the next 15 or so seconds to stumble off the road onto the curb. I wondered how he got there. Does that man know that the love of Jesus provides a lasting satisfaction that doesn't fade once the night is through?

In this passage, Paul and Silas knew that the salvation of those around them was at stake! Can we take a minute to recognize that the salvation of those around us is at stake, so that we may dedicate whatever lifetime we have to carrying the name of Jesus to those people?

In Which Key Do You Sing?

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were shaken." -Acts 16:25-26

This story in Acts is absolutely amazing. I'd encourage reading the whole thing because it's so powerful. Here are some practical notes I picked up from a sermon on the passage...
   -In the darkness, praise is unusual...it's not expected, but it reflects a God who is bigger than our trials and it affirms that he's in charge of our lives.

   -People pay attention to our responses in trials, so those responses are powerful.
   -The ability to worship like this in times of darkness comes from revelation of God, not simply information.  We have to experience him!
   -God does big things in these situations....like bringing people to freedom and salvation!

Will we dare to praise in prison, make a statement to our fellow prisoners, and be witness to the freeing hand of an unchanging God?