A Rescuer is born!

Today we are going to talk about the birth of our rescuer, Jesus Christ, and shed some light on what that means for us.

First, let’s enjoy this fun video from Southland Christian Church in Lexington Kentucky. This is Christmas according to kids in their congregation.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suowe2czxcA

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Comments……..

If you remember, two weeks ago we talked about the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus. He gave up so much. He did what needed to be done to rescue us from ourselves and our sins.

Because after all that IS what Jesus did, he came to RESCUE us, and boy do we need rescuing!

Jesus, who in the beginning already existed, who was with God and who was God stepped away from His fellowship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit to become man. We as humans really cannot fully grasp what that means, but I am pretty sure, as we talked about before, it was a huge sacrifice.

In the children’s moment two weeks ago we talked about what it would be like if the kids had some goldfish in a tank that they loved very much. We talked about how they would go about telling the fish that they loved them.

You could yell at them, jump up and down waving a sign near the tank, but really none of that would get your message across now would it?

How would we be able to tell the fish that we loved them?

To that as a human, and if it were possible, we would have to give up our humanness and become a fish so that we could get face to face with the fish and tell them how much we loved them in their own language.

This would require giving up much more than just walking around on two feet and being able to breathe outside of water. We would have to give up our friends, our families, as well as the ability to talk to them. We would give up our favorite foods, the beds we sleep in, going to school, playing sports and even getting presents at Christmas time.

That’s a lot to give up. And yet it pales in comparison to what Jesus had to give up to be born as a man to do the same for us.

Not only is it a lot to wrap our minds around, but how one could be both man and God at the same time is absolutely mind-boggling.

So, the fact that Jesus was both fully man and fully God remains at the same time, a truth and a mystery.

Scripture ALSO calls the fact that Jesus was of two natures God and man a mystery.

In 1 Timothy 3:16 we read…
16 Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:

Christ was revealed in a human body
    and vindicated by the Spirit.
He was seen by angels
    and announced to the nations.
He was believed in throughout the world
    and taken to heaven in glory.

The arrival of Jesus as the Messiah was such a big deal that, as we discovered last week, God chose John the Baptist to go ahead of Jesus heralding his arrival.

 John was so special to God that he, John, was born to his mother in her old age and was already filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a pretty big deal as most of those in scripture who received the Holy Spirit did so after baptism.

The beginning of God’s plan for the rescue of His sinful and broken children was most certainly nothing short of miraculous.

Last week we looked at the conversation between the angel Gabriel and father of John the Baptist, Zechariah. It was quite the conversation. But it wasn’t the most amazing conversation that Gabriel would have. Next on his list was a conversation with Mary, a teenaged virgin.

In Luke chapter one the angel Gabriel explains to Mary that she will become pregnant and have a baby as a virgin. This event, if true, is huge.

Luke chapter 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”

38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Southern California pastor, Greg Laurie, made some great points when he talked about the virgin birth. Here is what he said…

Famed CNN interviewer, Larry King once said that if he could choose one person to interview from the course of human history, he would choose to interview Jesus Christ.

King said that he would like to ask Jesus "if He was indeed virgin-born." He added, "The answer to that question would define history for me." Larry King understands that the Virgin Birth is a big deal.

If you are a Bible-believing Christian, then you can't dismiss what the Scriptures teach on this topic. I would even take it further and say that if you don't believe that Jesus was supernaturally conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, then you can't really be a Christian.

This is an essential part of Christian doctrine. If Christ was not conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit, if His biological father was indeed Joseph, then He was a sinner. And if He was a sinner, then His death on the cross did not atone for my sins or yours.

The fact is that because Jesus was supernaturally conceived in Mary's womb, He was fully God, yet He was also fully man. Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). In other words, "If you don't believe that I am God, then you are not really a believer."

I AM is God's own statement about Himself. When Moses wanted to know what to say when people asked who had sent him, God told him, "I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14).

That is why the Virgin Birth is such an essential teaching. Christ was not God because He was virgin-born; He was virgin-born because He was God.

(That’s so important I want to say it again…..Christ was not God because He was virgin-born; He was virgin-born because He was God.)

That being said I would also say that the birth of our Savior happened just as it was supposed to.

God doesn’t leave things to chance. If He didn’t want things to go a certain way, they wouldn’t. Jesus was being sent on a rescue mission. He was coming to save all of us. God had a plan and I gotta say I doubt that it was a plan that you or I would have ever come up with.

But then again this is the God that has a history of doing some pretty amazing things in ways that we would never think of, like marching around a walled city 7 times with your army before stopping to blow horns and yell to bring the walls down, or parting the Red Sea providing an escape route from a pursuing army, or even closing the mouths of lions to keep your prophet from being eaten.

But I digress….

Let’s read what God did in Bethlehem…

The Birth of Jesus
Luke 2:1-20

2 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

14
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

And there is more to the story. Wisemen came to worship Jesus and showed up more than likely a year or more after He was born. King Herod upon hearing of the birth of a baby who would be the King of the Jews ordered all children 2 years old and younger to be killed.

And there is more…but what I want to focus on is that Jesus came for a reason. What is that reason?

The reason is found in what arguably is the most widely quoted piece of scripture of all time. It is the Gospel all wrapped up into one verse.

I like the way the NIV version puts it…

John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I want you to read that with me.

Now I want you to read it one more time but this time let’s change it up. We’ll call it the NBT (the New Bryan Translation).

“For God so loved me that He gave His one and only Son, that if I believe in Him I will not die, but I will have eternal life.
And let me continue on in the NBT to read verse 17 as well.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn me, but to save me through Him.

This is the message of Christmas.

It is what God has given to us through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus later shed some more light upon the reason that He came in John 10:10 once again in the NIV. He said, “10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

So when we read these two passages we see that God’s love for us is so great, sacrificially great, that He was willing to give His one and only Son to not only come and live among us but to die for us.

Sending Jesus to earth as a man was the greatest rescue operation of all time and the really cool thing about it is that it continues on even now more than 2,000 years after it first happened! Because of what Jesus did, people continue to be rescued each and everyday.

In 2006 a movie staring Kevin Costner came out and it continues to be one of my favorites it is called “The Guardian”. The movie also stars Iowa boy, Ashton Kutcher. In the movie Costner is a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer and Kutcher plays the self-absorbed newby that Costner has to train.

Now if you don’t know about what a Coast Guard rescue swimmer does, let me tell you. They climb into helicopters and fly out in the worst weather to jump into the ocean and rescue people from sinking and/or disabled boats and ships.

In this movie Kutcher as the new young ego-filled is obsessed by the numbers of people that swimmers have rescued. He sees how many people rescue swimmers who had gone before him had saved and believed that he would make a name for himself by setting a record for the number that he would save over his career.

Along these lines he then asked Costner’s character what his number was after several decades as a rescue swimmer. Costner kept putting him off and putting him off when he’d ask, then finally he said that his number was 22.

Kutcher’s character with a very confused look on his face says “22? You have only saved 22?” Where Costner then says, no… but that 22 was the number that he was unable to save over the years. That was the number that meant the most to him not the number that he did save.

I think that while we read in the Bible that all of heaven celebrates when even just one of us claims that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, God is devastated by the those that have been lost.

So when we look at the Christmas story we need to understand that God’s gift to the world is His Son and that this gift came at a great cost.

For it is what Jesus did on the cross for you and me that shows the value of this gift.

Approximately 700 years before the birth of Christ Isaiah foretold of His coming and what His value would be to all who believed.

Isaiah 53:2-6

2
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4
Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Think of it like this.

One of the gifts that has become increasingly popular over the years is that of gift cards. I can give you a gift card and once you get it, it is up to you to actually go out and use it. You don’t use it you get no benefit from the gift card.
God’s gift of His only Son is like that. God has given us that gift and now it is up to each of us to decide if we are going to do what needs to be done to get the full value of this gift.

We can leave it alone and never cash it in …or we can get absolutely everything out of it possible and receive all that was given to us.

The difference between the two however, is that in the case of a gift card, you can partially use it’s value.That isn’t possible in our receiving the gift of salvation. We either take the full value of the gift or nothing at all. There is no part way, no way to partially use the gift, though many try to live as though there is.

So when we think about the gift that we have been given, the gift of a rescuer who brings eternal life, we need to remember also that He is our King and one that leads by example.

Jesus gave up a great deal for each of us and that is something we should keep in mind not only on Christmas morning but every day of the year.

Let’s do things a little different this year and let’s do our best to live every day of the coming year in the context of the Christmas story.

And why should we do that? Because we have been given the greatest gift of all time and we have the ability to share it every day of the year with others who don’t know anything about it. As a matter of fact, we are commanded to do just that.

Now, that kind of attitude will change us, our neighborhood, our town, our state, our country and our world if we let it.

Let’s let it.

Who knows, we may just be the answer to some else’s prayer.

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Watch this video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VumKim-tWIk

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Comment on the video and a prayer….

Merry Christmas!

John the Baptist's Dad

John the Baptist
Luke Chapter 1

A voice in the wilderness…


 An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38 (Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.)  The burglar stopped in his tracks.  The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.

As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you." "Scripture?" replied the burglar.  "She said she had an ax and two 38’s!"

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Last week we talked a bit about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We talked about what it looked like for Jesus to step away from His divine fellowship with the Holy Spirit and God the father to be born to Mary and live among men as a man.

We also briefly mentioned a fella by the name of John the Baptist. Today we will take a brief look at John the Baptist in the context of the interaction between Zechariah and the angel Gabriel.

We know from Scripture that the angel Gabriel is a messenger who is entrusted to deliver several important messages on God’s behalf. Gabriel appears to at least three people in the Bible, first to the prophet Daniel, referenced in Daniel 8:16; next to the priest Zechariah as we see here to foretell and announce the miraculous birth of John the Baptist (Luke 19:19); and finally to the virgin Mary to tell her that she would conceive and bear a son, referenced in Luke 1:26-28.

Now, after many years of not having a child, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah. Zechariah was a rather run of the mill priest in the temple he was married to Elizabeth who was from a family of priests. Luke tells us that they were both righteous in God’s eyes and had obeyed the Lord’s commandments and regulations. And at this point they were also very old.

Then one day while Zechariah was on duty at the Temple, he had been chosen by the casting of lots, to be the one to enter the Temple and burn incense. While he was in the sanctuary fulfilling his duties an angel of the Lord appeared to him.

Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear. In Luke 1:13-17 we read, “But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife Elizabeth will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”

Wow!

First off….Does this remind you of anyone else?  It should, in the book of Genesis Abraham and Sarah were also promised a son in their old age. There are other similarities.

Let’s continue on with scripture. Luke 1:18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”

Doesn’t this also remind you of the way things went for Abraham and Sarah. They were also having a hard time believing that they would have a baby so late in life…

In Genesis 18:10-15 we read, 10 Then one of them (an angel) said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

Arguing with the Lord? Not a great idea. Ha!

Zechariah found that out too. We read in Luke 1:19 “Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was He who sent me to bring you this good news! But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”

Oh snap!

Basically here Gabriel is say….”Uh, dude…do you know who I am and who sent me?”

Now this brings back memories for me of being punished for saying things that I shouldn’t have or laughing when things were actually serious.

It is the reason that I spent a good deal of sixth grade sitting in the hallway at school. Mostly it was in Mrs. Dewald’s math class, but it wasn’t the only class. I found that there were consequences for my actions much like Zechariah did. As much as Mrs. Dewald would have loved it if the Lord had made me silent, He didn’t and I just kept ending up in the hall.

It was almost like every time my friend David Little and I would get our uncontrollable laughter going we’d look up and see Mrs. Dewald standing there as if to say, “I am your teacher, I stand in the very presence of the principal.”

Back to Zechariah…

So then he went out from the Temple and many people had been waiting on him and wondering why it was taking so long for him to exit. When he did come out and he wasn’t able to speak the people realized by his gestures that he must have seen a vision while he had been in the sanctuary.

Then later, after Zechariah’s week of service was over, and he returned home, and sure enough, things started to happen like the angel had said it would and Elizabeth became pregnant. 

So what can we learn from what Zechariah and Elizabeth experienced?

Both Zechariah and Elizabeth and Abraham and Sarah had not been able to have the son that they so desperately wanted. In both the time of the Old Testament and the New it was very important to have a son to carry on the bloodline and the family name. If a woman was unable to have a son, or any child for that matter she would feel as if she were cursed. So this was a pretty big deal. And after so long it only makes sense to give up on the chance to have a child.

In the case of Abraham and Sarah they took matters into their own hands when Sarah gave Abraham her maidservant so that they could have a son. That led to a whole ‘nother bit of drama which is another sermon for another time.

But what is interesting here is what the angel Gabriel said to Zechariah. He told Zechariah not to be afraid. I see this as God saying be at peace, this is all going to workout. The angel had also called Zechariah by name. I imagine that after 400 years of silence from God that for an angel to appear to a common priest such as Zechariah who was not a member of the priestly elite and know is name?…it would certainly be a bit unnerving.

He said in verse 13 “God has heard your prayer.” This leads us to our next truth. God is listening. After all the time that Zechariah and Elizabeth must have been praying, God was hearing their prayers. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I wonder about that. God are you listening? I would imagine that both couples, Abraham and Sarah as well as Zechariah and Elizabeth were thinking that God had either not heard their prayers or had denied them.

Neither was true. What a great thing to come to understand. If we are hanging in there with God and living lives that point to Him, He does hear our prayers and we shouldn’t give up when it comes to what we have asked.

Because you see…God’s delays are not necessarily God’s denials. Both couples due to their advanced ages had more than likely stopped praying that they would have a child. In the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, when Gabriel said that God had heard their prayers I think he was talking about prayers that had been prayers much earlier. I have to admit, I find that pretty encouraging to know that God continues to have prayers that I prayed some time ago still on the books.

Let’s look a little more at the things that Gabriel had to say about what was to come as far as John the Baptist was concerned.

Verse 14 says….You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
Here, it is God who is predicting that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have great joy and gladness which just by itself is such a terrific promise, but then He goes on to say that many will rejoice.

Sure sounds like a party to me! I’m pretty sure that there were not many who rejoiced at my birth, more than likely it would have been limited to close family and for sure my mom who said that when I was born I showed up at lunchtime and she missed her meal.

A good portion of the rejoicing may have come because of the fact that after such a long wait, Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with a son as well as the fact that it was evidence to all concerned of God answering prayer.
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Verse 15 says…for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.


“Great in the eyes of the Lord.”  Isn’t this something that every one of us would like to be able to say? Personally I think that if I were to be considered great in the eyes of the Lord and then to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” I would consider my life a success. How about you? Sure! What believer wouldn’t? Not only that, but for the angel of the Lord to say that about your son? The one you haven’t even had yet…Wow! That sure would take a load off wouldn’t it?

The angel alludes to the tradition of Numbers 6:1-12, indicating that John will be a Prophet dedicated to the Lord as a Nazirite. He will thus refrain from intoxicating beverages, cutting his hair, and all contact with the dead. He actually couldn’t eat anything that came from grapes, whether fermented or not; he couldn’t even eat raisins. All in accordance with the Angel who announced his birth.

And how absolutely amazing to be chosen of God in such a way as to be Spirit-filled even before birth. This is certainly a very special baby to be born.
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Verse 16 says… And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God.

John was coming to explain to the Jews that the Messiah that they had been waiting for, for generations was coming. This would have been very welcome news to those who would believe it. To explain that to the non-Jewish crowd would have meant very little or nothing as they were not expecting a messiah in the first place. Gentiles would be brought into the fold later. Peter and Paul would play significant roles in leading Gentiles to a relationship with Jesus.

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Verse 17 says….He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”

Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible says about John, “He shall be carried on in his work, as Elijah was, by a divine spirit and power, which shall crown his ministry with wonderful success.’

It also goes on to say that in turning hearts of the fathers to their children that, that statement is in reference to the Jews as the fathers and the Gentiles as children.

Hereby he shall make ready a people prepared for the Lord, shall dispose the minds of people to receive the doctrine of Christ, that thereby they may be prepared for the comforts of his coming. Note, First, All that are to be devoted to the Lord, and made happy in him, must first be prepared and made ready for him. We must be prepared by grace in this world for the glory in the other, by the terrors of the law for the comforts of the gospel, by the spirit of bondage for the Spirit of adoption. Secondly, Nothing has a more direct tendency to prepare people for Christ than the doctrine of repentance received and submitted to. When sin is thereby made grievous, Christ will become very precious.

And in reference to the rebellious the commentary says, “And he shall turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that is, he shall introduce the gospel, by which the Gentiles, who are now disobedient, shall be turned, not so much to their fathers the Jews, but to the faith of Christ, here called the wisdom of the godly.”

Gabriel is explaining that John has been selected by God to herald the coming of the Messiah. Maybe not on the same level as John, but haven’t we been called to work to point our lives to the cross?

Here’s a story about one guy who does just that…


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VIDEO….Fox Surprise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-35IxePoZ0
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While Greg Zanis may not be exactly like John the Baptist, there are similarities that I want to point to. He travels all over the country going to communities where tragedies have occurred and when he arrives he brings the cross.

In the clip Mr. Zanis said that he wants to shed a light on a dark time by bringing the hope of the cross to those who are hurting.

He opened his heart to those who are hurting by saying I will put up a cross for anyone anywhere, all you have to do is ask….people started asking.

Zanis said “I’m a man on a mission, bringing the hope of the cross and that God is in America, God hasn’t abandoned us.”

Greg Zanis is pointing people to Jesus. That’s what the Angel Gabriel was telling Zechariah that John the Baptist would be doing. He proclaimed that the Lord was coming and that it was going to change everything.

If we look at Isaiah 40:3-5 we see that the angel Gabriel wasn’t the only one who was predicting what John the Baptist would be doing… 700 years earlier the arrival of John the Baptist had been foretold through the prophet Isaiah.

We read…

Isaiah 40:3-5
3
Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
    for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
    for our God!
4
Fill in the valleys,
    and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
    and smooth out the rough places.
5
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
    The Lord has spoken!”

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So what does all this say to us?
Shouldn’t we live in a way to clear the way for the return of the Lord?  How can we do that? What does that look like?

Spiritual Warfare and Christmas

Spiritual warfare and Christmas
Dec. 3

Two 6 year olds struggled with the problem of the existence of the devil.

One boy said, "Oh, there isn't any devil." The other, rather upset, said, "What do you mean, there isn't any devil? It talks about him all the way through the Bible!"

The first replied, "Oh that's not true, you know. It's just like Santa Clause, the devil turns out to be your dad." 

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You know, that joke really isn’t that far from the truth when it comes to how the world sees Satan. Hollywood and countless advertising agencies would have us believe that Satan is just a myth, a guy dressed in a red suit with horns on his head and holding a pitchfork.

But don’t you believe it! Satan is real! He is very, very real.
How real is the enemy?

In the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 10 we read the words of Jesus who said, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
Your version may say “that they may have life and have it to the full.”

Who is Jesus talking to? What is a thief? What do they do? Who is Jesus talking about? Back up to 10:1….

Luke 11:23 New Living Translation
"Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.

So if the enemy can work against Jesus through those around Him, I’m pretty sure he can do it to us too!
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And what better time of year for Satan to ply his trade of deception and destruction than during the Christmas season?

During this time of year the enemy works to distract our focus from giving glory to God. That is one of his main goals all year, but during the Christmas season it seems as though he does everything he can to turn us to other things instead of the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

So this morning I want to talk about this. I realize that there are still three weeks until Christmas, but that is why this is a good time. I want to encourage you to be on guard and to understand that we are in the midst of a spiritual war, especially this time of year.

Each of us is under attack. Satan is doing all that he can to turn us away from God and cause us a spiritual defeat. What I am talking about here is an all out war for our hearts and souls!

Satan often mounts his attacks just a little bit at a time. He can be very subtle, he plants seeds of doubt, frustration, greed and anger that can grow into all out sin if left unchecked.

Scripture tells us that we as Christians are just visitors to this world while as Jesus says in John chapter 14(:30) that Satan rules over it. And as that ruler, he is doing everything he can to bring about our Spiritual fall. You see if we align ourselves with the values of the world we then have put ourselves in direct opposition to God. For that which is of the world is just temporary where the values that point to God are eternal.

While Satan continues the battle for souls he knows that he as already lost the war because of Christ’s work on the cross. He also knows that if we are walking with God we are safe from his attacks. It is our knowledge of this, however, that can also cause a problem for us.
It is easy to get complacent in the knowledge of the victory that Jesus has had over Satan. If that were to happen it would give the enemy the opportunity he is looking for to launch an attack.

Satan will do everything in his power to block our walk in Christ and His victory. He makes use of deception, and lies to entice us away from Christ. The devil unleashes a barrage of attacks on our thoughts, desires and emotions in nearly inconspicuous ways to seduce us and trick us into believing his lies.

There are many Christians who live in defeat today because they have succumbed to the attacks and the lies that Satan is spreading. This defeat is keeping these believers from experiencing the joy that God intends for them.

While the attacks from the enemy are very real, he is certainly not hiding behind every tree or bush. If we believe that is the case we then can find ourselves living in fear of Satan and that would also be a win for him.

Theologians tell a story to illustrate how Christ's triumph presently benefits our lives: Imagine a city under siege. The enemy that surrounds the city will not let anyone or anything leave. Supplies are running low, and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark of the night, a spy sneaks through the enemy lines. He has rushed to the city to tell the people that in another place the main enemy force has been defeated; the leaders have already surrendered. The people do not need to be afraid. It is only a matter of time until the besieging troops receive the news and lay down their weapons. Similarly, we may seem now to be surrounded by the forces of evil -- disease, injustice, oppression, death. But the enemy has actually been defeated at Calvary. Things are not the way they seem to be. It is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to all that the battle is really over. 

That victory begins with what the Bible tells us in James 4:7: "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

That being said, Satan has not given up on you or me. He will continue his attacks on believers and churches. So we need to be aware that we are in his crosshairs especially during the Christmas season.

Christian Author Debbie has listed seven ways that Satan is trying to sabotage Christmas as well and scriptural answers for each. She makes great points… Let’s have a look.

 1. Distraction / Busyness

Our enemy is deceptive……. Revelation 12:9 says, This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.(Revelation 12:9).

He’ll try hard to exhaust our days with busyness and distraction. He loves it when we have no room in the schedule for God, or we’re too busy to pray. If he can just keep us endlessly spinning our wheels at a hurried, frantic pace, he knows we’ve lost our influence. He’ll distract us with endless activity, full calendars, and even top media headlines. Anything that will draw our attention away from Christ, even seemingly “good” things, is all part of his plan. We find ourselves overwhelmed, over-extended, pressured and stressed.

 But God gives us the awareness that He came to set us free, He brings peace. He gives us wisdom and the strength to put Him first.

The Remedy: Remember Matthew 6:33. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.



2. Comparison/Jealousy

The enemy is a liar…… John 8:44 says… For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44).

Satan’s great at whispering “you’re not enough.” We may find ourselves looking around at what everyone else is doing, what they’re buying, what they’re getting. We notice how others seem to “have it all together” – perfectly decorated houses, perfect families, perfect photos, perfect lives. And we keep feeling like we’ve come up short. Jealousy sets in. Wanting what others have. We’re too busy looking around us wondering why we’re not more like “them,” to ever notice what God might be wanting to speak to us. Yet He reminds us where our true value is found. Our security and joy are found solely in Him.

Remember John 10:10

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)  As we saw earlier, this verse talks about what the thief does, it also explains what Jesus has come to do. What a promise, what a great hope our Savior is!

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3. Discontentment/Temptation/Greed

The enemy is a tempter…….. Matthew 4:3 Says, During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.(Matthew 4:3).

The Christmas season can stir up many emotions, and the quest for more stuff to fill our aching hearts can be a huge temptation for many. We want, we “need” something to help satisfy a void that’s deep within. We listen to the enemy’s lies that money and stuff will somehow soothe the loss we feel. We’re lured towards sin, we’re tempted by the desire for the things the world can offer. But God gives us the discernment to see through that trap. We can set a guard over our hearts, and trust Him for wisdom in making the best choices.


Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13

“13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure..” (1 Corinthians 10:13)  This is where there has been some confusion. This verse talks about us having no more temptation in our lives than we can handle. Some have come to say because of this that “God won’t give us more than we can handle.” Or that He won’t allow it. That just isn’t true and nowhere in scripture doe it say that. God often allows us to experience things that we cannot handle on our own so that we will turn to Him.


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4. Unforgiveness /Resentment

The enemy is a schemer….… Ephesians 6:11-12 says Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.(Ephesians 6:11-12).

Maybe you thought you’d forgiven that wrong, that hurt, from months ago. You thought you’d laid it to rest. And yet the holidays, parties, and time with family and friends just stirred it all up again. You can be sure the devil’s at the heart of it, he doesn’t want you to forgive and move forward. He loves it when we stay stuck in our pain. Recognize who’s at the root of deception, push past his lies, step over his traps. Know that God’s heart is for you. His healing is huge and His love covers all.


Remember Ephesians 4:32

“32 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. .” (Ephesians 4:32)

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5. Worry/Fear

The enemy is looking for someone to devour…… 1 Peter 5:8 says, Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  (1 Peter 5:8).

And he’ll often target those who are hurting or feel weakened with fear. This is one area that Satan works the hardest. It’s a powerful weapon that he’s used over many of our lives. If your heart is set on worry and fear, he has you right where he wants you. Don’t let him win this battle. Stay aware of his traps and this endless cycle of worry. It can be fierce to struggle through, but don’t give up. Give God your every fear and worry, fill your heart with the Truth of His Word, meditate on what He says and choose to believe His words, that we “don’t have to be afraid.”


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Remember Isaiah 41:10

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand..” (Isaiah 41:10)


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6. Loneliness/Broken Relationships/Disunity

The enemy is a manipulator…… Genesis 3:1-5 says, The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”(Genesis 3:1-5).

He loves to stir up controversy, especially division among believers, and destruction in our own families. He rejoices in hatred and strife. He cheers on riots and violence. If you’re in a season of loneliness or are struggling through feelings of rejection and hurt, don’t stay stuck there. Bring those needs and relationships to Christ, every single one, because He has the ability to heal and restore. He is, after all, a Redeemer.

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Remember 1 Peter 4:8
“8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

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7. Despair/Depression

The enemy is an accuser…… Revelation 12:10 says, Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,

“It has come at last—
    salvation and power
and the Kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters
    has been thrown down to earth—
the one who accuses them
    before our God day and night.(Revelation 12:10).

It’s not a surprise that the holidays are times when depression and suicide are on the rise. Or defeat, despair, addiction, and deep darkness of the soul. The enemy loves us to dwell in all these places. But God alone can offer the healing and the power to rise above these things. He is our hope giver. Nothing else can lift us from these dark places like God can. Don’t give up. Don’t succumb to the enemy’s lies. Cling to God and know that He cares about you, more than you could ever realize. Christ came to set the captives free.


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Remember 1 John 4:4

"4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world." (1 John 4:4)

(Content taken from the article, 7 Ways the Enemy is Trying to Sabotage Your Christmas, written by Debbie McDaniel.)



A little boy came to his father looking much in earnest, and asked, "Father, is Satan bigger than I am?" "Yes, my boy," said the father. "Is he bigger than you are, Father?" "Yes, my boy, he is bigger than your father," The boy looked surprised but thought again, and asked, "Is he bigger than Jesus?" "No, my boy," answered the father. "Jesus is bigger than he is." The little fellow, as he turned away, said with a smile, "Then I'm not afraid of him.”

So as we move through this Christmas season and into the new year, remember that God has the answer for all of Satan’s attacks. The answer is for us to get closer to Him both in His living Word and through prayer. And remember that no matter how difficult things may seem our hope is in the one who has defeated death, Jesus!

Lost and Found

Lost and Found
Luke 15

A pastor went over to an elderly church member's house to see how she was
doing. Seated on the sofa and very hungry, he spotted on the coffee
table a bowl of almonds. 

A little timid, he asked, "Do you mind if I
have one?" The woman was quite reluctant but said, "No, go ahead."

An hour later, he was in disbelief that he had finished off the whole bowl!

"Oh I'm so sorry about all the almonds!" he said as he stood to leave.

"Oh, don't worry about it. 

All I can do is suck the chocolate off them since I lost all of my teeth."

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I’d like to say that I have a good way to connect that joke to what we are going to talk about this morning…but I don’t. I’m just going to leave it right there.
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I don’t know about you, but I sure like it when I find something that has been lost. Most of the time it would be my car keys or television remote that I would be looking for when I lose something. These days my 20 year old son is living with me as well as three dogs in our small home. For the most part Barry keeps track of himself, but keeping track of three dogs can certainly be a challenge.

The other day while I had the three out in the yard I looked up to find that my 6 year old lab,Titus had made a break for it and was nowhere to be found. It was about 4:30 in the morning and I was not really in the mood to go searching for my wandering dog. But….I knew that quite honestly if I didn’t go find him I wasn't too sure if he’d return on his own.

I also know that Titus doesn’t pay attention to traffic. He wouldn't hesitate to run directly into the path of an oncoming car if he were to see something on the other side of the road that interested him. Knowing that about him makes it all the more important to find him when he runs off because I live near two rather busy streets.

So I put the other two dogs in the house and jumped into my truck to find Titus. I drove to the places where I had found him after other escape attempts. I didn’t find him. I then turned down one of the busy streets near my house and two houses down the block, there he was, in the yard of a home checking out all the smells of the trees and bushes in the front yard. Since it was 4:30 in the morning I was able to stop, back up and jump out of my truck leaving it in traffic (of which there was none) to get Titus and put him in the back seat before heading home.

I have to admit that I was relieved to locate him so quickly and to get him back where he belongs.

If I feel that way about my pet, how much more must God grieve when we are lost? He looks for us, He calls us and He continues to wait for us to come home. No wonder there is celebrating in heaven when one of God’s lost children comes home.

And if that’s the case, and God loves each of us that much, doesn’t it make sense for us to follow His lead and love His children in a manner likewise? Shouldn’t we also be concerned for those who are lost?

If we truly want to imitate God, then the things that break His heart should break ours right? More often than not, they don’t. But sometimes we actually listen and take action.

Dallas area pastor, Matt Chandler, tells the story of Dave Karnes. When the World Trade Center tumbled to the ground on that dreadfully dark day, more than 3000 people lost their lives. But a few who were buried beneath the rubble miraculously survived. Two of these were Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, a pair of Port Authority employees who responded to the attack and were on the bottom floor as the south tower fell.

Trapped without water and breathing smoke filled air, both men had little hope for survival. Yet as they lay there under a mountain of debris, something was stirring inside an accountant in Connecticut. Dave Karnes who spent 23 years in active duty in the Marines, was watching the scene play out on TV like the rest of us. But more than just allowing it to trouble him, he decided to do something about it. He went to his boss and told him he wouldn’t be back for awhile. He went home and put on his fatigues and then drove 120 MPH to ground zero, arriving by late afternoon.


While rescue workers were being called off the site, Dave was able to stay because of the clout and credential of his uniform. Finding another Marine, the two joined forces and walked the pile of debris together, seeking to save a life. After an hour of searching, they heard the faint tapping on metal pipes. It was Will and John who had been trapped for nine hours. This Marine who had been working a spreadsheet just hours before found them, began to dig and then freed these two men. Of the 20 people pulled out of the rubble to safety, Will and John were numbers 18 and 19. And all because Dave Karnes took off his suit, put on his rescue fatigues, (rolled up his sleeves) and stepped into the despair and darkness of Ground Zero.

And then Matt Chandler writes, “In the same way but to an infinitely greater degree, God took off his royal robes, stepped into our dark and depraved culture, and served us. We were buried in the depths and rubble of our own foolishness with zero chance of pulling ourselves out of our own sin. We were without hope until the Holy One clothed himself in humanity to rescue us, to become sin for us on the cross. Our service (to others) must be grounded in the truth of the Gospel…Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection for us. It begins and ends with Jesus – begins there because he is our original motivation and ends there because in Him we are empowered to serve (and save) others.”
Can you imagine feeling that kind of calling on your heart? The kind that would cause you to drop what you are doing to go where you need to go, to do what you need to do, and find someone who was lost. I think that Jesus is calling us to do just that.

I believe that those of us who are followers of Jesus have more love than we need and we don’t want to stockpile it, we want to give it away. What better way to dole it out than to use it to strive to find those who are lost and introduce them to the One who saves, Jesus.



In Luke chapter 15 we read…
Luke 15:3-7
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

Jesus addressed the importance of the lost to God from three different angles. In the story of the lost sheep He not only explained the joy of finding the lost sheep , but also the shepherd’s willingness to lift the sheep up to his shoulders and carry it home. This would have been a great display of love by a shepherd not only for his flock but for an individual sheep.

The same is true in the way that God sees each of us. Individually we are important enough that he would come and look for each of us. And God is also being very patient as He waits for His children to return.

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Diana knew the rigors of her residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City would take its toll, so to keep her company, she adopted a 30-lb., black and tan Mutt mix named Zoey from an adoption agency in Puerto Rico. The pair bonded quickly, and loved learning about each others’ quirks. One cold Sunday morning in October, Diana’s dad was walking Zoey through Central Park when, spooked by an approaching dog, she pulled out of her collar, and took off. What happened in the next week is a story you won’t believe.

Diana and her family’s hunt for Zoey began immediately, including plastering thousands of “Lost Dog” posters all over Manhattan, several Craigslist ads, false leads, and a potential sighting underneath the George Washington Bridge. And the search crew seemed to grow by the day—volunteers from a local adoption agency distributed posters, even the Chief of the Central Park branch of the NYPD helped in the search.

“One day I was hanging a poster outside of a church when these little old ladies came up, gave me a hug, and told me they would ask Jesus to find my dog,” says Diana.

Exactly one week to the hour since Zoey had gone missing, Diana and her mother were walking around East Harlem looking for her pup, but really just chatting about how they would memorialize her, perhaps a burial in the backyard with her toys, or donating her crate to a shelter, when her phone rang and a mysterious woman said she thought she had their dog. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up, particularly after all the prank calls we got, so I told her to snap a photo and send it to me. It was my Zoey.”

A lovely couple had recovered Zoey limping along in Riverside Park not far from the George Washington Bridge, put a scarf around her neck to guide her along, and, on their way home, stumbled across Diana’s poster. The rest is history. Diana nursed her baby girl back to health (Zoey suffered three pelvic fractures on her journey) and they’ve been together ever since.

“To this day, I call every person’s number when I see a lost dog poster,” says Diana. “I tell them not to give up hope.”

Diana learned a lesson. Never give up hope. Isn’t that what we see in God as he searches for the lost? He doesn’t need anyone to call and tell Him…. He won’t ever give up hope on any one of us. He will continue to pursue each of us because no matter how far away we have wandered He continues to love each of us and patiently await our return to Him.

In the Parable of the Lost Coin God shows the effort that one goes to in order to find that which is lost.

Luke15:8-10 says…. “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

Looking for something that is lost is very important when you have very little to start with. So in this parable Jesus is pointing out the value of the lost. It is so valuable to the woman that she lights a lamp which would cost money, and then she swept the entire house and searched carefully.

But she didn’t search for just a little bit and say, “It will eventually turn up, or it wasn’t that big a deal, I still have the other nine.” No, she searched until she found it. We don’t know how long that was, but it could have been a few minutes or a few days, we just don’t know, either way we do know that she didn’t stop until she found the coin. God is relentless in His search for us too. And then when we are saved God rejoices just as we would if we were to find something of such great value.

In the first two parables we see things from the vantage point of the one who is searching for the lost. We get a view from what it must look like for God as He searches for His lost children and what it would feel like to find that which is lost. But what must it feel like to be the one who is lost and then found?

When I was about four years old, my parents took me to Jones Beach. Jones Beach is actually Jones Beach State Park and it is a barrier Island linked to Long Island New York. The beach itself is 6 and one half miles of white sand beach on the Atlantic Ocean.

The beach was incredibly crowded. We may have been on a beach at the ocean, but the beach itself was a sea of humanity. There were people in every direction who had come to spend time at the beach on a hot summer afternoon in New York. And on this afternoon I decided to go for a walk all by myself. After walking for a few minutes I realized that I could no longer see where our blanket had been laid in the sand. As I looked in all directions there were no familiar faces. I was lost.

It is one thing to lose an object, but it is entirely different when it is you who are lost. A sense of what I would call full-body-panic came over me and since I did not know a single one of the people who were near me, I for some reason decided to just sit down next to the nearest trash can. At four you don’t have many strategies to choose from, at least I didn’t come up with many. So I just sat down next to the trash can, put my head down and cried.

After what seemed like hours and hours but was most likely just 10 or 15 minutes, I felt a tap on my arm and a familiar voice. “There you are.” said my mom. I was never so happy to see anyone…ever. I had been thinking about what life was going to be like out on my own, but now I could abandon those thoughts and return to where I belonged.

I knew that I had been lost. Sadly many people in today’s world don’t even know that they are lost. By that I mean that they don’t understand where it is that they actually belong and that their heavenly father is walking up and down the beach looking for them in the hopes of bringing them home. If only they would be able to grasp what it really means to be found, and saved.

In the third and final parable that Jesus teaches in Luke 15 we are told about a man and his two sons. One of the sons tells his father that we wants his inheritance early. He wants what he would otherwise get after his father died. That request is a huge red flag right off the bat. I mean, who does that?

That could not have been a normal request even during the time of Jesus. I am sure that those listening to Jesus tell the story were already forming an opinion of this son and it wasn’t a good one.

So the son takes his money and heads off to a far land to live a life of selfishness and sin. Not too long after, two things happen that open the eyes of this young man. First off he runs out of money and secondly at the same time there is a famine in the land. Out of food and out of money, he begins to starve and come to the realization that he is in trouble.

So at this point Jesus gives us a view into the circumstances and the mindset of the one who was lost. In the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin we saw things from the perspective of the one doing the searching, now we get to see what it looks like to be on the other end of the situation.

The son knows he has made a mistake and after a failed attempts to try to make it by hiring himself out to a farmer we get a peek into his thoughts as we read in Luke 15:17-19

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

So he heads home. As he approaches something happens that the listener of the time and even of today may not have expected.

His father had been waiting and watching for the return of his lost son. Instead of doing what most people would have done and writing the child off, the father runs to greet him.

I think that many fathers of that time and of today would have said something to the effect that the wayward son was and is “dead to me”. And no matter what the son did he would not be welcomed back into the family. But you see that isn’t how it works in God’s family. The contrast of the world’s view of this and the way God sees things then becomes clear.

Now the son who had remained faithful to his father was feeling slighted at all the excitement of the return of his brother. He was thinking, “Hey wait a minute here, I was the one to stayed on and kept working. I never demanded my inheritance, I never left. What’s the deal? Where’s my party? Where’s the robe and ring for me like the ones you just gave my brother?

In Luke 15:31-32 we read…

31 “His father said to him (the faithful son), ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Church, this the lens that we need to see the world through. Not only for lost children in our own families, but also for all those who may cross our path who have strayed away from the love of our heavenly Father.

We have been put here, right here, in Pueblo West on McCulloch Blvd. to point people to Jesus. It is God’s plan. He wants to use us to reflect the love of Jesus onto those we encounter on a daily basis in such a way that they can’t but help to see that they are lost and there is something so much better waiting for them. And it really isn’t a someTHING but a someone.

Jesus has shown us that we need to be diligent in our search for the lost, we need to be willing to put in the extra effort to find the lost and then we need to understand the way that the lost see things. It is the love that God pours into us that we are to share with them as they begin to move toward the Savior.

Each of us are called to reach out to the lost in the name of Jesus that they may be found. Are you ready?

Oh Thank God!

Nov. 19
Giving Thanks


Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn't make it.

Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We're in for it!" John answered, "I can't. I've never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I'll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table;

“O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.'"

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Today we are going to talk about being thankful. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the holiday is not just the kickoff of the Christmas season and lots of great food, but it is a reminder as to how we should be thinking the entire year.

The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to the church in Thessalonica and one of the things that he wrote was to encourage them to give thanks. First Thessalonians 5:16-18 says  “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is telling us in this passage that it is God’s desire that we would rejoice, pray and be thankful always. So no matter what is going on in our lives God wants us to do these things.

If we are rejoicing, praying and expressing our thanks, it can be really hard to be angry, self-absorbed complainer. To behave in one of these ways will rule out the other just by default.

Now, what does it really mean to be thankful? Merriam Webster defines thankful being “conscious of benefit received”.

Another source says that the definition of the word, thankful, is to be pleased and relieved or expressing gratitude and relief. Most of us know exactly what it means to be thankful.

I recently asked people on Facebook to message me what they are thankful for other than their salvation, God and Jesus.

Here are some of their responses.

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I am thankful for…..
and show photo of girl from paper who is thankful
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Quite often we don’t feel much like being thankful do we? Maybe we lost our job. Maybe we are suffering physically or maybe we have even lost a loved one recently. Life can be difficult and each of these things are reasons we may find ourselves less than thankful.  Yet we have much to be thankful for.

Billy Graham shares a story about a man who had every right to be bitter and resentful, but was not. He tells it like this…

The next footsteps in the corridor, he knew, might be those of the guards taking him away to his execution. His only bed was the hard, cold stone floor of the dank, cramped prison cell. Not an hour passed when he was free from the constant irritation of the chains and the pain of the iron manacles cutting into his wrists and legs.

Separated from friends, unjustly accused, brutally treated—if ever a person had a right to complain, it was this man, languishing almost forgotten in a harsh Roman prison. But instead of complaints, his lips rang with words of praise and thanksgiving!

The man was the Apostle Paul—a man who had learned the meaning of true thanksgiving, even in the midst of great adversity. Earlier, when he had been imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:19-20, NIV).

Think of it: Always giving thanks for everything—no matter the circumstances! Thanksgiving for the Apostle Paul was not a once-a-year celebration, but a daily reality that changed his life and made him a joyful person in every situation.

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As followers of Jesus Christ, being thankful to God for all He has done, is doing, and will do, should be a daily occurrence shouldn’t it?
If a spirit of ingratitude is allowed to grow in our hearts it will put a barrier between us and the God who loves us so much as to sacrifice His only Son for us while we were yet sinners.

If we have an ungrateful heart we will grow to be bitter, selfish and malcontented. As we nurture a spirit of thankfulness in our hearts we will find that we are more content. We will also discover that even in trials, we have a peace and joy that draws us closer to our God.

Not everyone got the memo on that though.

At one point as Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem he encountered a group of ten lepers. They called out to Jesus from a distance as it was their custom to do.

You see at the time those who suffered from leprosy would be required to call out so as to keep others from coming in contact with them. They would shout “leper, leper, leper” if there were others nearby so as to alert them and keep a seemingly safe distance between them.

When they called out to Jesus, however, it was not to alert Him, but to ask for His healing. In Luke chapter 17: 13-14 we read, that “They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Jesus responded by saying, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

They were healed, free of sores, the disease was gone, they were, good as new.

Leprosy is some nasty stuff. It is an infectious disease that causes one to have serve pale-colored disfiguring skin sores, that may appear as lumps or bumps, and also nerve damage on the arms and legs. You would think that being healed of leprosy would caused them to celebrate with a great amount of joy.

That just wasn’t the case.

Only one of the ten turned around after being healed and came back to give thanks to Jesus. Starting with verse 17 we read, “Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Have you ever experienced anything like that? I mean not healing someone of leprosy of course, but a situation where you were asked by someone to do something for them and then when you did it, they didn’t even bother with thanking you?

It has been my experience that teenagers can certainly go through stages of just such behavior. I may have even gone through just such a stage myself in my teen years.

Teenagers not withstanding, I suppose that there are other possible reasons that the other nine didn’t turn around to express their gratitude.

Baptist Pastor Charles Brown suggests that the other nine may have had their reasons…
    One waited to see if the cure was real.
    One waited to see if it would last.
    One said he would see Jesus later.
    One decided that he had never had leprosy.
    One said he would have gotten well anyway.
    One gave the glory to the priests.
    One said, “O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything.”
    One said, “Any rabbi could have done it.”
    One said, “I was already much improved.”

Whatever the reasons were that the remaining nine lepers didn’t join with the one and return to give thanks, I can tell you that it didn’t surprise Jesus. I am sure that before He even granted them the healing He already knew that they wouldn’t be grateful, but you know…He healed them anyway.

That my friends is the kind of Savior we follow. He healed them even when He knew that there would be almost nothing in the way of gratitude shown by those healed. And later, He would die for those same lepers and each of us while we were yet sinners. But that’s just how Jesus rolls.

It sure seems to me that not only were the lepers ungrateful, but it was almost as if they had taken Jesus and His healing for granted.

How often do we take the things in our lives for granted? I can’t begin to tell you the amount of complaining that I hear from people who cross my path or on social media. Originally I was going to tell you that quite honestly much of the complaining is from young people, which is certainly true, but us older folks sure can get on a roll when it comes to ranting about what bothers us.

Not too long ago a campaign to quell complaining began. Rev. Will Bowen of Kansas City preached a sermon in July of 2006 where he encouraged his congregation of 250 to shift their focus from lack to abundance by giving up complaining for 21 days.

Bowen says that is the length of time it takes to break a habit. As part of the effort the church handed out latex bracelets with the word “Spirit” on them. The bracelets were designed to reinforce the idea and at this point more than 5 million of the bracelets have been shipped out worldwide.

At one point I heard an account of a church congregation that had placed an order for the bracelets and when they arrived, for whatever reason, the church leadership complained about the quality of the simple latex bands and returned them. How sad. That church complained about the bracelets that were created to quell complaining.

I have said many times that I would love to take every child I know to Haiti before they turn 18 so that they can see what it really means to be without. I think it would be something that they would never forget. Many of the children in third world countries while they have very little, do have a great deal of joy and happiness in their hearts.

It is really a matter of being happy with the blessings that we have and being thankful for them on a daily basis. Otherwise we will constantly compare our situations to those of others and be miserable when we don’t measure up.

Have a look at this short video.

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SHOES

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That’s a powerful message isn’t it? It says to me, “be careful what you wish for”, but it also says that things will go much better for us if we are content with the blessings that we have instead of desiring the blessings that others have.

Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4 “11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

You see, our level of contentment is directly related to the level of joy and happiness in our lives.  If we are not content with the blessings we already have in our lives whether related to material goods, relationships or our circumstances we will always be comparing our situations to others and looking to get bigger and bigger blessings.

If our focus is constantly on whatever the better thing is, then we will never be happy with what we have and we will always be looking for something else. On the other hand, if we are thankful and grateful on a daily basis for all that we have, we can be content and filled with joy. That joy  however, will never come if we are more into complaining than giving thanks.

Author and breast cancer survivor, Erma Bombeck made the point rather well when she wrote.

An estimated 1.5 million people are living today after bouts with breast cancer. Every time I forget to feel grateful to be among them, I hear the voice of an eight-year-old named Christina, who had cancer of the nervous system. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought long and hard and finally said, "I don't know. I have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I have everything!" The kid is right.

How often do we really have everything, but we don’t see it that way?

Isn’t it interesting that the things that we desire the most, and are the most important to us, most often are the cause of our anxiety, and unhappiness?

Quite often our unhappiness is a result of our attitudes toward our circumstances. As I said before, if we are thankful for all that we have and have been blessed with, each time our circumstances change for the better OR the worse, the happiness and joy will remain.

There are several places in scripture where we are reminded to be thankful for the blessings in our lives and to direct that thankfulness toward God. It is a good habit to get into because it then carries over into our dealings with others.

In Psalm 107 king David writes in verses 8-9, Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

We see that in this passage that we are not just thanking God for what He has done in the past but also the things that He continues to do as He satisfies the thirsty and the hungry.

Sure we should give God praise and thank Him on a daily basis for all that He has done, is doing and is yet to do, but a direct result of giving thanks like that is that we will appreciate the circumstances in our lives. And if we appreciate the circumstances, and each blessing, we will always have more joy and happiness than if we take the things in our lives for granted and are continuing to look for more.

Being thankful is a decision each of us must make. I cannot decide that you will be thankful, it is up to you, but it does make a difference. Things look much better to us when we view our world through the lens of thankfulness and gratitude.

Andre Deutsch tells this story…In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?"

The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you."  The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week."

A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before.  "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy."

The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week."

A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us."

The way in which we view the life we live and the circumstances that we encounter will make all the difference as to whether or not we enjoy the time we’ve been given. Things are always better if we are thankful for what we have. The world would have us believe that we should always be looking for something better, we should never be content with our place in life. That attitude can quickly change if we are faced with losing it all.

Dana Keeton told this story in The Democratic Union of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee:

The sun had just risen on a hot August day in 1944 in the small village of Plelo, in German-occupied France. The 15-year-old boy did not know why he and the other citizens of Plelo had been lined up before a firing squad in the middle of the town square. Perhaps they were being punished for harboring a unit of Marquisards, the French underground freedom fighters. Perhaps they were merely to satisfy the blood lust of the German commanding officer who, the evening before, had routed the small group of Marquisard scouts. All the boy knew was that he was about to die.

As he stood before the firing squad, he remembered the carefree days of his early childhood, before the war, spent roaming the green of the French countryside. He thought about all he would miss by never growing up. Most of all he was terrified of dying. How will the bullets feel ripping through my body? he wondered. He hoped no one could hear the whimperings coming from deep in his throat every time he exhaled.

Suddenly, the boy heard the sound of exploding mortar shells beyond the limits of his little village. Quickly rolling tanks could also be heard. The Germans were forced to abandon the firing squad and face a small unit of U.S. tanks with twenty GI's led by Bob Hamsley, a corporal in Patton's Third Army. A Marquisard captain had asked Hamsley for help. After three hours, fifty Nazis were dead, and the other fifty were taken prisoner.

In 1990 the town of Plelo honored Bob Hamsley on the very spot where dozens of the town's citizens would have died if not for him. The man who initiated the search for Hamsley and the ceremony honoring him was the former mayor of Plelo, that same 15-year-old boy. He had determined to find the man who saved his life and honor him.

It's hard to forget your savior.

Neither should we forget ours.

Spiritual First Responders (Aug. 5, 2017)

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Love God, love people.

Where did that come from? Why does it matter? Do we really have to do that?

Let’s take just a second here and briefly give these questions a look. Where did it come from?

It came from Luke chapter 10, Matthew chapter 22 and Mark chapter 12:30-31 where when asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this” ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

This was written in the Gospels, the Gospels which are the part of the New Testament that speaks to us about Jesus and His coming, dying, and rising again so that we could have eternal life.

Loving God and loving people matters because Jesus, the one who did come, die and rise for us said it did. Oh it isn’t really that simple. But since He gave everything for us, I’d say that He has the necessary credibility that it would take to at least get me to listen.

As I listen to Him talk about loving our neighbor I come to realize that if I look back at His roughly three years of ministry loving His neighbor is exactly what Jesus did everywhere He went. He was the living example for us. He showed His love everywhere He went because He came for all of us. He died for all of us. He rose again for all of us. That matters.

Do we really have to love God and love our neighbor? Actually, yes, yes we do. And we are to love others as we would want to be loved ourselves. That’s what Jesus was saying when He said, that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves.
You see, it is a command for those of us who follow Jesus. Since God and Jesus love everyone, when we love our neighbors as ourselves we are at the very same time showing our love to God. It is kind of like this…when you love on my kids the way you would want me to love you, you are showing me love too.

But how do we show that love to others especially to those who don’t know or believe in Jesus?

We’ll come back to that…

Bear with me for a minute…

I want you to picture yourself as a first responder.

What is a first responder?

A first responder is someone who is the first to respond right? That seems straight forward enough. Today we look to police, fire and rescue personnel as first responders. They are called to respond to the emergency needs of another, but while we call them first responders, quite often there are others who have the chance to respond before trained personnel can arrive.

STORY ABOUT “EMERGENCY!” TELEVISION SHOW WITH JOHN GAGE AND ROY DESOTO PLAYED BY RANDOLPH MANTOOTH AND KEVIN TIGHE. THEY WERE PARAMEDICS ON A LOS ANGELES RESCUE UNIT. (Emergency Intro…..You Tube). DEFIBULATOR OR AND IV WITH RINGER’S LACTATE FIXED EVERYTHING.

PASS AROUND HELMET-

You know what I mean. When someone begins choking in a restaurant it is a good idea to call 911, but the first person to respond is most likely someone who is already at the location. We give training to as many people as we can so that they can be ready when these kinds of events happen around them. People learn the Heimlich maneuver, CPR or even how to use a tourniquet to stop bleeding. When a seemingly regular person leaps into action to rescue someone in some form of distress, we say that they are a hero.

But you know, I think that if we take a minute to look at it through the lens of scripture, we might find that it is something other than heroic.

Turn with me to Luke chapter 10 verses 25-37.


Luke 10:25-37New Living Translation (NLT)
The Most Important Commandment

25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”[a]

28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

(We heard this earlier from the passage in the Gospel of Mark.)
But there’s more..

29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Parable of the Good Samaritan

30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant[b] walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[c] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Isn’t Jesus great? We just read12 verses and there is SO much there. Let’s unpack it just a bit this morning.

First of all we see where another one of those troublemakers is trying to trap Jesus into saying something that they can use against Him. They were always trying to do that kind of thing to Jesus, but seeing as how Jesus is God incarnate there was really no way that they were ever going to pull one over on Jesus was there? So Jesus used them to teach the rest of us.

I have to admit that this is one of my very favorite parts of scripture.

Jesus turned the tables on this guy. Then He used a parable to show not only him what He is trying to say, but also to teach the rest of us what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I realize that there is a pretty good chance that you have heard or read this parable several times. But it really does speak to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. The majority of the people around us who live in the world would cross over to the other side of the street to avoid the messiness of getting involved. They believe that they are either above getting soiled in the process of helping someone who is most likely beneath them socially or they would not want the responsibility of doing whatever it would take in time and money to get involved.

It is sad that both society and the church have lost their compassion for their neighbor.

If we go back to Nehemiah we see what it looks like to care about a community.

In Nehemiah Chaper 1 we read…

In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign,[a] I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

Then in chapter two we read….

2 Early the following spring, in the month of Nisan,[a] during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was serving the king his wine. I had never before appeared sad in his presence. 2 So the king asked me, “Why are you looking so sad? You don’t look sick to me. You must be deeply troubled.”

Then I was terrified, 3 but I replied, “Long live the king! How can I not be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”

4 The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?”

With a prayer to the God of heaven, 5 I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”

Nehemiah had a passion for his home. It was so strong that it showed in his face, he couldn’t help but feel that way as he was connected to that place. It was home. His people still lived there and to be without a wall was to leave the city and those he loved unprotected. He needed to respond. It was the right thing to do. It was second nature.

The same thing was true for the good Samaritan. While the religious leaders who first passed the injured man did their very best to avoid the situation by crossing the street, the Samaritan cared. Where the others most likely talked a good game where God was concerned and could recite scripture, the Samaritan did something about it.

He didn’t stop to evaluate the situation, he didn’t get out his cell phone and take a picture to post on Facebook and he didn’t make any excuses. He jumped right into the situation and did what he could. We don’t know if his stopping was making him late to an important business meeting or for a family gathering, but we do know that he was on his way somewhere. Even so, he took the time, went out of his way and was willing to to have his day interrupted to tend to the injured man.

How many of you have been to paradise? You know…Iowa!

Well each year there is something that happens there that has put Iowa on the map. It is called RAGBRAI. RAGBRAI is the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. This is where more than 2,000 people ride their bicycles from the Missouri River on the Western boarder of the state all the way across the state to the Mississippi River on the Eastern boarder of the state. It is absolutely amazing!

Why am I telling you this? Because I want to tell you about the Air Force Cycling Team. The Air Force Cycling Team is made up of members of the Air Force from all over the country. More than 100 of them attend the ride each year. They all wear matching jerseys and they have some pretty fast riders. One of those fast riders is a 23 year old Airman named Jacob Pinkney who is stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. You see, the Air Force Cycling Team is not like any cycling team that I have ever come across. They aren’t out to win anything or to be the fastest. While they attend RAGBRAI they do their best to assist any rider who may need help. Airman Pinkney was a great example. He didn’t ride past pretending not to see folks in need, he made it his mission to search them out and help them whenever he could even above and beyond what the team’s overall mission was. He fixed flats, repaired bikes, bandaged a skinned knee or two, was late arriving at the campsite due to helping others and even attached a bike trailer to his bike and pulled it with child inside to a campsite after the woman pulling it needed assistance. That’s the kind of thing that Jesus is talking about.

Jesus asked the expert in religious law which of those in the story of the good Samaritan was the neighbor to the man who had been attacked. His answer? The one who showed mercy. Then Jesus gives the command. “Now go and do the same.” He doesn’t say only do it if it is safe, only do it if you can afford it, or only do it if no one is looking. He says, NOW go and do the same. Jesus calls His church to show mercy no matter what the cost.

Charles Stanley makes the point that it is a sad commentary on the church when he said, “it  (the church) has open arms for a homeless Savior, but arms crossed for a homeless neighbor.”
The truth is that the two actions are connected. Isn’t having open arms for a homeless neighbor part of having open arms for a homeless Savior?
One of the best ways we can show our love for Christ to love those He loves and do it without reservation.

PANDEMIC

The early church is a great example of how Jesus would encourage us to love others. A plague struck Alexandria  and when everyone else ran away, the early Christians risked their lives for one another by simple acts of washing the sick, offering water and food, and consoling the dying. That was pretty incredible by itself since everyone else was fleeing, but the first Christians took it to the next level when they reached out to sick non-Christians. Large numbers of lives were saved by their actions.Their elementary nursing greatly reduced the rate at which the sick were dying. Simple provisions such as food and water allowed those who were sick and too weak to care for themselves to recover instead of succumbing to the sickness.

The pagans couldn’t help but notice that Christians not only had the strength to risk death, but through their care for one another they were much less likely to die themselves. Christian survivors of the plague became immune and were then able to move throughout the afflicted without concern.

So much like first responders, the early Christians ran to the fire instead of away from it. You see, much like the good Samaritan when we come across someone who is hurting we have the opportunity to show the love of Christ. Those who cross to the other side of the road, are missing the opportunity and very well may not be true followers of Jesus to begin with.

James 2:14-17

James the brother of Jesus writes about just that in the New Testament.
James 2:14-17 says, “14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

So if we go back to the command at the end of the parable we find something interesting. Jesus didn’t say now go and think the same, go and speak the same or go and write the same. What He did say was to go and DO the same.This is a call to action. A call to to put the love we are supposed to be sharing with our neighbors to work.

Today we, the church, have the opportunity to make a difference in amazing ways. Instead of retreating from the epidemic of pain and death we have the chance to demonstrate that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Instead of fear which can cloud our vision followers of Jesus can show that it is in giving our lives away that we find life. The way in which we live and die is our message.