It seems as though it was only a week and a half ago or so, that I was sitting on my family room floor surrounded by piles of tissue, wrapping paper, and ribbon. I was in a wrapping frenzy! I had set aside an entire day, from morning until night, to complete this project of wrapping my family’s Christmas gifts.

What I thought would take a day, turned into two, and a few late nights sprinkled in here and there! After I had selected what I hoped would be the perfect gifts for our family, I then set about to carry on the Christmas tradition my Mother had started. We  choose the perfect paper and ribbon for each person to create the Christmas stack of gifts! They would be revealed as our family came around the corner, saw the Christmas tree, and spied the stack of gifts prepared especially for them.

Then it began, within seconds, the paper of each gift carefully and painstakingly selected just for them became an instantaneous pile of torn rubbish. Isn’t it sobering to realize that the amount of time, effort and money we spend on outer adornments only serves to reveal the GIFT that lies inside?

I was reminded at the end of the unwrapping of our gifts, that the true meaning of Christmas lies within. I always dread the day after Christmas. Knowing that it’s over and that I have to wait a whole year until it’s here again. But if I truly have received the GIFT of Christmas-the Savior Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, meaning God with ME, then Christmas truly never ends.

The GIFT of my Savior being with me, living IN me, and enabling me to do His will each and everyday, stays with me even after the adornments of Christmas are put away. Yes, I will put away my treasured ornaments and take down my Christmas tree and lights. The stockings will come down and the beautiful snowflakes I love so dearly will be packed away. My Christmas dishes will be carefully wrapped and saved until next year, but the GIFT of Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord will remain with me throughout the year!

Truth Bomb

In unwrapping the true GIFT of Christmas, we find that the outer decoration only adorns the beauty of what’s inside!

As you enter this week, between Christmas and the New Year, and look at the adornments of Christmas that decorate your home and life the few final days before they are packed away for the season, may you and I both reflect on the Truth that outward sparkle and decoration is not what we offer others. The true GIFT we offer is our heart, reflecting His love to everyone.

“People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

I look forward to starting a New Year with all of you next week, and a new series!

 

Speak Truth Love

 

 

This Tuesday’s blog finds us in the fourth week of Advent and only five days from Christmas!

Week one gave us the Hope of Christmas, Immanuael, God with us! Week two brought the Love of Christmas, as God sends his angel to speak to the Virgin Mary and tell her that she would bear the Son of God! Week three brought us the Joy of Christmas,
As the wisemen make the wise choice to follow the miraculous star to Christ the Savior! And this week, the final week of advent brings us PEACE!

That PEACE IS NOT spelled P-I-E-C-E! It is not another piece of Christmas candy, or another piece of cranberry apple pie, or another piece of a Christmas cookie that we intend to only eat part of, but inevitably return back to finish…It is peace with a capital P followed by an E-A-C-E!
It is the peace we are looking for as we try to navigate through the traffic on the way to the mall! It is the peace we frantically try to hold onto as we compete with the clock to make it on time to one more program! It is the peace we long for as we try on outfit after outfit to select the perfect one to wear for Christmas! It is the peace we pray about having as we gather together with friends, family, relations, some we get along with with ease and others that take a greater measure of effort! It is the peace we try to maintain as our eyes wander back and forth and up and down our Christmas list of gifts to buy! And, it is the peace we dream about as we check our bank balance after each purchase!
And it is certainly the peace we need when someone mentions, ” It’s Only 5 More Day Until Christmas!”
Peace is not a common state of being for most humans. In fact, I believe that true peace is not found apart from God!
Oh, beauty pageant contestants will ask for it, and we will do our best to find it, as we buy into every cultural lure that promises us peace for the price of a treatment, bottle, or time away! The ironic part to me, is “time away” is the opposite of finding true, real, and everlasting peace this side of heaven.
God intervened into our world, and because He did, we can enter His! When we do, we have PEACE! God’s peace is not the kind of peace as the world understands. In fact, God says that His peace surpasses our understanding! It is a true mystery, just like the mystery of Christmas! God coming down to be with us! Through that mystery of Christmas the majesty of God is revealed! In the same way God promises us PEACE when his favor rests on us!

Luke 2:14,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE two men on whom his favor rests.”

True Peace is only found when we spend time with God! He came to us at Christmas time, to understand the hurried, busy, scattered, broken, crazy hectic life that we live, and he offers us Himself! True peace, genuine rest, and calm amidst the storm, when we abide with Him!

God sent another angel that night to a group of very uncommon people. These people did not rank high in society, they did not hold powerful positions, they did not achieve the highest test scores in school, in fact in their culture they would’ve been considered “nobodies.” They were the shepherds!
They kept to themselves mostly because they spent the majority of their time with smelly sheep out in the open air on a hillside. However, God only saw them as LOVED, His precious people that He came to save and have a relationship with!
God saw them as so significant that He gave them the greatest announcement that the world has ever received,

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

The announcement was personal, and it was delivered to common men…, ” I bring YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY…”, and “…a Savior has been born to you!”

Truth Bomb

God’s favor rests on us when we follow him!

Jesus said to the Shepherd’s over two-Thousand years ago “Follow Me.”
“You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger,” GO , FOLLOW, You will find Him!

He is saying the same thing to you and I today, “in the middle of your craziness, your busyness, your franticness, your sorrow, or your grief…come to me, you will find me, and I will give you PEACE!

As we are only five days from Christmas, and our schedules heat up and our peace is hard to find, may we take a lesson from the shepherds,

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ” Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:15

GO! GO TO GOD, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU PEACE!

May you experience His peace at Christmas like none other this year as you go to the Savior of the world! And don’t forget to tell others!

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” Luke 2:17

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY YOU TRULY FEEL GOD’S LOVE AND PEACE!

Speak Truth Love

Happy third week of Advent! I didn’t forget about today, I chose to post late tonight when the stars were out and bright!

For it was on a night when the brightest star that has ever shown hung brightly in the sky leading those who would follow it.

This star was not simply a scientific make up of combustible parts, it was hung there by God himself! Put in the sky to lead those who would follow it to the Messiah, the Savior, the King of Kings, the Great I Am!
It didn’t flicker or dull or burn out of its brilliance. It burned brightly and steady with miraculous light and lead all those who chose to follow it to the newborn King himself, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:1-2

In a very real way that star still shines miraculously today for us if we choose to follow it, but it is a choice!
Herod learned about the star of Bethlehem, and his pride and jealousy drove him to not follow it to the True king who could have saved him. Instead he allowed it to drive him to hatred, jealousy, and vindictiveness to the point of wanting to destroy the King of Kings.
The religious leaders of that time also could have followed the star. It shown as brightly for them as anyone else. But they allowed there intellectualism and their superiority to blind them to the truth of the miraculous occurrence in Bethlehem.
Finally the wise men, those who had not yet fully come to the knowledge of God and His plan, but allowed there hearts to be open to follow the truth! True worship is when we follow Him!

So what about me and what about you? Do we follow the star that still shines over our lives and leads us to our King, the King that was born on Christmas Day?
Or do we allow are selfish human nature to cloud our judgment and follow the path of self enlightenment or indulgence? Do we allow our intellect to believe in the King, but stop us from following him with complete surrender. Or do we, like those wisemen so very long ago, follow the light that shines brightly even in a dark world with unashamed allegiance?

Truth Bomb

Those who are wise, still follow the Star.

I hope and pray that at this Christmas time as we reflect on him we find ourselves in the good company of the wise men who followed the star! It will lead us faithfully in our walk with him day by day just as it did for them over 2000 years ago!

Truly, wise men, and women, still seek him!

Speak Truth Love

It’s A Party! A Birthday Party! The greatest birthday party the world has ever had!

Birthday parties are fresh on my mind these days as I have just celebrated three very special ones! First, it was my grandson’s second birthday! Buzz Lightyear ushered us to “Infinity and Beyond”, as we celebrated this very special boy!
Second, it was my son’s 27th birthday! How he got so old, and I just keep getting younger is a mystery! (I wish!)
We celebrated him in true Disney style, as a family, at ‘The Happiest Place on Earth.’
And third, it was my birthday yesterday! Yes, I have withheld the number to protect the not so innocent, me! I was celebrated far beyond what I deserve! My family celebrated me on my “fake birthday”, (that story is a blog for another time,) by my Northern California family. Then I was celebrated by my Southern California family on my real birthday, not to be outdone by my amazing class of 4th graders who threw me a surprise party at school!

But none of these are the party I am referring to, yet this party is the one most fresh on my mind.
The birthday party that I am referring to had no “special guests” invited. The attendees were lowly animals, the stinky barnyard type. Not a lot of family attended, only a young mother and father. There were no streamers, balloons, or even a cake. No special theme was used, only that of obscurity and little fanfare.
Yet this Birthday was the most significant the world will ever experience. A King was born, the Savior of the world. And He was brought into this world, on His very first Birthday by a young woman who was a virgin. No, you did not read that incorrectly, His mother was a virgin! His birth was a miraculous one! You have heard of a “natural birth,” well this birth was not a “natural birth,” it was a SUPERNATURAL BIRTH! A birth like none other, the birth of God our Savior. The complete account is beautifully told by Luke in Luke 2: 26 – 38. But the part I want to focus in on today during the Second Week of Advent is verse 38…….

“I am The Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

This young woman’s life was interrupted in a way she never could have imagined. She was young, a virgin, pure and right, and engaged to a godly man. Her life looked “perfect.”
Then, when she least expected it, an angel visits her! Not only did she get visited by an angelic being (CRAZY RIGHT?), but this angelic being asks her to take a step of faith, NO, a LEAP of faith, and believe that she is going to become pregnant BY THE HAND OF GOD! And what is her answer?
Her answer is the greatest expression of FAITH we could ever hear,
“May it be to me as you have said.”

Does Mary understand her God given assignment? Does Mary have time to plan ahead and make sure all of her “ducks are in a row?” Does Mary even take the time to fret, question and wrestle with God before she accepts His assignment/interruption into her life? The answer is NO to all of these questions!
Mary exemplifies supreme faith and trust in Her God and His plans as she quietly and humbly accepts His assignment!
Oh how I pray that I would grow in my faith to the point of trusting God fully and completely with my life so that I too would answer like Mary did and accept Gods interruptions in my life as He calls me to accept His assignments.

Truth Bomb

When God interrupts our lives, may our answer be, “As You Say!”

As we navigate through the second week of Advent and focus on the Virgin Birth of Jesus-our Messiah, Savior and King, let’s not neglect to look at the young virgin Mary and pray that God would give us faithful hearts and lives like hers!

Happy Reflecting and Celebrating Everyone! We are truly Blessed to Celebrate the BEST OF BIRTHDAY’S, The Birthday of Mary’s baby boy, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world!

Speak Truth Love