Month: December 2019

New Year’s Day is coming up soon. As the end of the last year is upon us and the dawn of a new one is filled with promises, many people will put together a list of New Year’s resolutions. It may be one or it may be more but it will list those things that an individual would like to accomplish in the next twelve months.

I don’t do such a list. I may have tried once or twice, when I was younger, but today I find that creating such a list is an invitation for defeat. There’s something about making these types of goals or promises that causes us to break down and not do the work that is needed to get them done.

Sometimes, that is a shame, because the things we want to do are things that we should do. Many times, though, this type of list is a listing of things that we want regardless of whether they are things that God wants for us.

I’ve found that just making shorter term plans of things that I will actually do is a much better thing for me. As I go along, I ask for God’s guidance. At least, I do so these days. Before, I would just keep going until I accomplished what I set out to do.

If I ran into hurdles, I’d just double my efforts and power my way through. I wasn’t going to let problems stop or hinder me. Most often, the hurdles were God’s way of trying to change the path that I was on. It’s only in recent years that I have come to understand this. Before, I never thought to ask God if what I was doing was good or right for me.

God will allow us to make mistakes. Small mistakes or even huge ones. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love us. He does but, at the same time, he has given us free will. Free will means that we are made to make our own decisions. Whether those decisions are right or wrong, good or evil, or simply things that are a waste of one of the most precious resources we have. That is our time.

Our time on this Earth is limited. Sometimes, it feels as if life is dragging and a day takes forever. Other times, it feels like time is flying by and as each year passes by, it feels like it is going faster and faster.

With the time we have been given, we should be doing things that really matter. Things that will help others and, at the same time, help build up our own faith. Finding out what those things are is more difficult.

We have to put aside the thoughts that we have and, instead, look to God and ask him to give us the task he wants us to do.

It’s very easy to justify what we want by bending the messages of the Bible to support what we do. It doesn’t mean that it is true, though. It means that we can be very creative when it comes to doing what we want.

We might be fooling ourselves but we will never fool God. He knows what we are doing and it brings him sorrow to see us working so hard against his wishes.

We need to think and then think some more. After that, think again. Question the resolutions, goals, or plans that you are considering before you commit to them. Pray continually and God will let you know what he feels about them.

However, do not think that hearing nothing means a green light. Often, we will say, we have not heard from God. When, in reality, we have but we haven’t heard what we wanted to hear.

God has plans for us. He created us for a special purpose. He put us at this time and at this place to do something that no one else can do. It put us here to tell our unique story. If you are not looking to find his will, you may miss your opportunity. If that happens, then there is something missing from this world that could have been so very special.

Look to God when it comes to making your plans for the future. Check with him daily to see if you are still on track with what he wants for you. He is waiting and wants to hear from each of us. He will never turn aside or ignore you. Just be sure to listen to his answer even if it is not what you want to hear.

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Within less than a week, we will be celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He came to this earth as a helpless infant. He lived among us and suffered with us. He also celebrated along with us and experienced the same joys and sorrows that all of us do.

Isn’t it amazing that the Son of God, who was also God himself, would choose to be just like us for a lifetime that was cut short because of the evilness of mankind?

He could have come, as he will in due time, as a conquering God. But he didn’t.

If he had, mankind would have been doomed to eternal separation from God. You see, not one of us was good enough, holy enough, whatever enough to look upon the face of God and live.

Our sin made us unacceptable to a righteous and holy God. He could not have sin in his presence, so man would never again, as Adam and Eve had, have God the Father, living among us.

So Jesus, who was the sacrificial Lamb of God, came to rescue us from sin. He took our sins and exchanged them for his sinlessness. Again, what kind of God would be willing to live and die for his own creation?

There is only one and his name is Jesus.

One day, as a born-again Christian, I will see Jesus face to face. As with all others who will be there, I will thank him and call him my Lord and Savior.

I didn’t do anything extraordinary to be one of the group who will be in heaven one day. All I did was accept that Jesus lived and died, as God and man at the same time, to bring his salvation to the Earth. I asked him to exchange my sins for his pardon and I asked him to guide me for the rest of my life.

The pardon is available for everyone. That means you, too. Jesus is there and waiting so patiently for you, with love and forgiveness. The choice is yours. You can choose to live eternally or to die eternally. No one else can make this choice for you.

Luke 2:1-20

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.

Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

I have recently heard several Christians whom I know talking about television programs and movies they enjoy watching. I was very surprised. Almost every single one that they talked about they prefaced by saving, “there’s a lot of sex, nudity and/or profanity” but on the other hand, they said that the content more than made up for that.

Really? You think you can ignore seeing things and hearing things that God has expressly told his followers to indulge in? I don’t think it really works that way.

It seems to me, from my own experience, though mostly from reading books, the more that you see, hear or read that falls into those forbidden areas, the less likely you are to feel that there is anything wrong with it all.

The entertainment industry has sure changed a lot since I was a child. Even as a young adult, it would have been shocking to have seen a sex scene, to have characters expressly indulge in sexual immorality or to swear constantly. There were some movies like that, but they were simply not socially acceptable.

Today, those types of programs are pretty much what is available to watch. There are some exceptions but, for the most part, the things that people consider entertainment is actually a slow dissolution of whatever moral code they may have.

Even shows for children are not exempt from a change for the worse. Many show parents as bumbling idiots if not down right evil. For that matter, parents are so far gone in understanding what is right or wrong, they think nothing of letting young children watch graphic shows or play graphic video games.

While parents are the first group I thought of, another group that comes under fire on almost every front, is that of Christians. They are generally the bad guys or considered stupid and unintelligent. It is almost cliché how evil Christianity is portrayed. On the other hand, atheism is alive and well and is applauded.

That certainly not would have been the case when I was young. At that time, when prayer had been removed from schools, most people still went to church on the Sabbath. Stores were closed. There was a respect for the church.

Is any of that still true today? I don’t think so.

I think that a good part of that attitude is because of the indoctrination we receive in school and, more importantly, the indoctrination we receive from entertainment.

Respect for authority as suffered as well. I remember when the troops came home from Viet Nam. They were greeted with horrific names and people spat in their faces. I remember thinking how awful it was for the soldiers. They had done what they were asked to do to defend our way of life.

If it wasn’t a just war, it wasn’t the fault of the soldiers. The news, music and media of the day sure portrayed it as such.

For me, the way they were treated was the beginning of the decline of the goodness of our country.

Today, most people have been so sated by what they watch, see, hear and even discuss, that they don’t know that, just by doing so, they are actually breaking the ten commandments of God.

Jesus told us just thinking about such things is the same as actually doing them. How can someone watching two other people having sex not think about it? How can someone listening to curses profaning God not be a party to the curse?

I haven’t really watched television in years. When I did, I was fairly careful about what I did watch. However, when I had stopped watching for about a year, I went back to watch some of my old favorite shows.

Even though I had thought I was so careful in what I was watching, I was shocked at how truly disgusting they were. For the same reasons I mentioned above. Keep in mind, those shows were mild. They weren’t at all like the ones that I had heard references to recently.

Recall, at the beginning of this post, I mentioned that it was fellow Christians, who were discussing what were fairly raunchy televisions shows and movies, that opened my eyes. Somehow, I had thought that most Christians didn’t indulge in these.

I guess the idea of missing the next best show or movie is too much for even a good number of Christians to stand. I also wonder how many of those same Christians feel like God isn’t listening to them or answering their prayers. Sin stands in between us and God and it will have a huge impact on our relationship with him.

Philippians 4:8-9

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

We’re heading into the season that celebrates the gift of God’s love to the human race. It was around 2,000 years ago, that the Son of God stepped out of eternity and came to the earth in the helpless body of an infant.

The story of God’s love continued and ultimately provided us with the willing sacrifice that Jesus made by giving up his life to pay for the sins of all of mankind.

The sad thing that I have seen, throughout my life, is that during the weeks leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth, people show less love, less patience and are sometimes downright evil to one another.

So many bad things happen during this time of year. One might think that bad things only happen to those who don’t know Christ or who are mired in sin but that is not true. Bad things happen to and are caused to happen by those who would be considered good people and those who have accepted Jesus as their savior.

I’ve had the experience of people being so mean and awful to me at this time of year that it was hard to keep my spirits up. I remember being accosted in a grocery store and threatened with losing my life because I dared to keep my place in line to buy dinner for my family.

It didn’t matter to the individual that I had been waiting patiently for close to an hour and she had just arrived. What mattered was that I was in her way and she was going to do whatever she wanted to get in front of me.

Well, that didn’t happen. I have been abused for too much of my life to let it continue. I stood my ground and, eventually, the manager of the grocery store had to call the police to get the young woman removed before she made good on her promises. I had to have a security guard walk me to my car so that she would not follow me.

More recently, an individual who had been making demeaning and hurtful comments to and about me under the guise of being humorous, come right out and told me in front of others that I was the source of her problems and anxiety.

It wasn’t true, of course, I only see this person once a week for about one and a half hours. In fact, I had not seen her for about a month when she decided to hold me responsible for her troubles.

I could have responded back but I didn’t, I decided that rather than step down to that level, it would be better to leave my Christian small group than to become her stumbling block in her walk of faith.

It won’t change her life. She has multiple physical, emotional and personal issues in her life but somehow, she has focused on me.

I know why. Once again, I took the point of standing my ground. You see, she’s a more than a bit of a bully and when our group started, as most bullies do, she looked for the weakest individual to pick on. She choose me. Maybe because of my illness or my age, I’m not sure why. Maybe because I had talked about the awful things that had happened to me in my childhood and I appeared to be a good target.

I have been abused by others in my life but decades ago, I learned that allowing yourself to be abused is not what God expects. He tells us that we will be abused for his sake and to accept that it will happen. But when someone is simply mean and abusive because that is who they are, we are not expected to allow them to continue to abuse us over and over again.

So, I started answering her back and calling her out when she would make untrue and mean comments about me. I don’t know if she had ever had that experience before and it made her unhappy. On the other hand, it also made me unhappy. I’m not the type of person who wants to inflict pain on others.

That is why I choose to leave. My husband is also happy with the decision. We are still very happy with our church but the thought of being in a small group again is not something we will rush into.

By the measure of the horrible things that will occur during the next month, my recent experience is pretty low. I know that and I am thankful that God is taking such good care of me. I have health issues and I am in chronic pain but when I measure that against the good that God has given me and what he has in store for me, the problems of life are a mere breath, a simple vapor, in the timeline of eternity.

I am hoping that the coming weeks, months and years will bring a better promise and that none of us with suffer. However, if we do, know that God is in control and he has a purpose and a plan for everything in our lives.

He takes good care of his children. Sometimes, though, bad things happen to those who love God. It isn’t because God doesn’t love us, it is because we live in a fallen world.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.