Believe

The Bread of Life

"Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 NIV

Not a holiday, a holy day. Christmas has become a crazy time of excess on many levels. We find ourselves caught up in activities that drain our spirits and make us irritable. All that should be joyous becomes a part of what drags us down. The Christmas Spirit become the Christmas sprint, and whatever you do, don’t make too big a deal about Christ. Christmas as we know it hasn’t been around all that long, but its development as a commercial venture has exploded along with online shopping and deals to buy, buy, buy. Jesus has been pushed aside in favor of Santa Claus. Jesus is not an icon of commercialism. Maybe that's why he is tucked inside nativity scenes and promptly forgotten. His messages of peace and tolerance, self-discipline and faith don't coincide with the Black Friday mentality. In truth he was a man who was God, and God who was a man. On this earth he lived as humanly as any of us. In the end he was not permanently bound to the Christmas story as fictionalized by pop culture. He said he is the bread of life, and that hasn’t changed.

Faith

The Light of the world: A promise kept

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. Isaiah 11:1-3

A restless night filled with fears named and unnamed. Horrifying moments of desperation. We all experience those times when answers don’t come easily and solutions seem impossible. Psalm 30:5 reads, “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” This verse reminds us that ultimately God is in charge. Our night terrors are of our making. Our times of worry put us in a state of fretfulness and confusion. The morning sun shines light into our lives just at the Son of God brought light into the world. We can’t do a single thing at night to solve our problems, yet we pick away at them swelling our minds with disaster after disaster. Morning light brings relief. Faith is the morning light that can and will shine 24/7. We can trust in the Lord to lift us and carry us through. When we fret we forget God. When we have faith we are filled with his illuminating presence, revealed so beautifully in the Christ child.

Joy

The First Noel

I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 146: 2

I love Christmas carols. There is a purity to them that is moving and joyous. The melodies are gently harmonious and the words uplifting. You cannot listen to a Christmas carol without smiling or feeling your heart swell or your eyes tear up with joy, at least I can’t.

Christmas carols emphasize the hope that came into the world with the birth of Christ. They paint vivid pictures of the magnificence of God’s love and his ability to touch the lowborn and the highborn.

Everyone can relate to the Christ child, from the first wondrous moment when a baby sees a candle flicker on Christmas night to the oldster who is lighting it as a symbol of Jesus, the light of the world.

It is easy to get caught up in the ritual of Christmas and in the secular buying craze that goes on. We put emphasis on giving and getting rather than celebrating the lowly birth that would forever change the world.

Christmas carols call us back and remind us that angels proclaimed the coming of the Lord and told shepherds where to find the babe. Kings traveled for weeks in foreign lands to reach the humble place of Christ’s birth. Carols remind us of the true meaning of the holiday. 

 

Prayer

Tis the Season

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:4

Even at his most desperate King David found time to pray, honoring God and acknowledging his prominent place in David's life. The enemy was at his door. He prayed. He made unwise choices. He asked forgiveness. He turned his back on the teachings of God to get his own way. In the end, when it all went to pieces, he prayed. Pray any time and for any reason. God is the all-powerful, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He does indeed know what's going on. But do we? Through prayer we gain strength and understanding. Prayer isn't incidental to our lives; it is essential. God in His heaven; Christ in our hearts; the Holy Spirit an infusing force. Pray any time and for any reason. Prayer is always in season.

Faith

In His Hands

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

The times we need faith most are the times we have our greatest fears. Will God take care of this? Does he fully comprehend how bad… worrisome… unmanageable… sorrowful… depressing… distressing… my life is? Why would He care enough to do anything? Maybe He wants ME to take care of it. And then you start thinking of all the ways you will “fix” your problems without Him, often making things worse, much worse. Faith doesn’t mean sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing. It does mean prayerfully including God in every decision and trusting Him to give you wisdom and discernment. How life turns out from day to day is in His hands. Faith is the most powerful tool of the believer. Faith is the means by which you will get through it all.

Faith: Take wing and fly

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:2

In “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis writes, “It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Mother Theresa wrote, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

The message from both these inspirational writers is about faith. Remaining faithful; being courageous in faith; willing to step outside your comfort zone in faith; faithfully resisting that which takes you away from the Light; and standing on faith when the world is falling apart around you.

Lewis returned to his Christian imperative in his thirties. With his new-found faith he wrote compelling narratives calling attention to how the world can shape who we are when we lose faith, not necessarily all at once, but rather by dribs and drabs, an undone thing here, an unkind or thoughtless word there.

Mother Theresa dedicated her entire life to serving the helpless and the hopeless, stepping out in faith, not that all would be well, but that she had a job to do and that job was right in front of her to be done now. Not later, not tomorrow, not when she had time, but now, in this moment. Today.

Faith in the God of all takes us out of our self-imposed prison of ennui and gives us wings.

Believe

Look to the Light 

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Compassion and mercy sound good in theory, until someone you love disappoints you time and again, and you feel guilt and remorse because your parenting skills were woefully lacking. The adult son who struggles with addiction or anger issues seems flawed beyond redemption. The adult daughter, whose poor choices lead her into one abusive relationship after another, from which you cannot – despite your best effort – extricate her. Where does this behavior come from? You did the best job you could, and yet these disappointing examples of your bad parenting are like a shadow on your life.   

Perhaps that’s where the problem begins and ends. The lives of these people you love are based on their personal choices, made outside of your influence, and not necessarily because of it. Perhaps your focus on the shadow obscures the Light. That’s where compassion and mercy abide, in the Light. Compassion means to have sympathy and concern for someone and to show kindness toward them. Mercy extends forgiveness and understanding. Nowhere in there does either of these exact guilt. Nor do they require you to “fix” the other person. Nowhere does it say you need not have compassion and mercy for yourself. God is at work. Know it. Believe it. Live it. Grace abounds, not because of who we are, but because of who God is.