Monthly Archives: December 2017

The Great Return

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This week begins the season of the Great Return, you know when everything you spent hours looking for and many dollars buying gets returned to the unknown abyss.

Do you know what happens there?  Untold bunches of stuff are taken back to their original store, where they are then sent to some kind of discount place store. All will be sold for a tiny percentage of original value.

Is anything we own of any real worth? Clothes get baggy and worn, dishes break. All that really lasts is our relationships.

Sadly they don’t go on forever either. People move or die and everything is over…unless we have the hope of seeing them again.

The only thing we can really count on is our one on one relationship with the Lord. Thankfully it is non-returnable.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.   (John 1:18, NIV)

Prayer- Lord, draw our hearts to what really lasts…the Christ. Amen.

Flying Reindeer

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It is the Christmas season and reindeer are on the loose once more. Forget Santa and his flyers. They are all over the roads too.

My brother was driving along a major highway yesterday when a car in the other lane hit a deer. The momentum tossed the deer into my brother’s path.As I said, it is the Christmas season and reindeer are on the loose.

21 Ways to Forgive

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Are you groaning over that title? Have you been struggling with a needed forgiveness? Refuse to forgive ‘your enemy’ in the usual ways?  Step out of the box and try anyone of the many ways offered by Wes Daughenbaugh in his new book, 21 ways to Forgive.

Stop clinging to the traditional family feud and do as God asks you. Forgive. Stop listing reasons why not and start doing it. Oh and by the way, the book includes nine reasons we must forgive. Whew. I have said a mouthful now, haven’t I? To top it all off the book is illustrated s well!

Here are a few of the chapter outlines.

Forgive so we won’t go to Hell.

Forgive so the devil doesn’t get a foothold in our lives.

Forgive so we don’t die of stress related illnesses.

Forgive so that we can be like Jesus.

This book is for every one. Even a child will easily understand the illustrations. Be brave. Face the truth about your way of living. Forgive where you need to forgive. If you aren’t sure, ask God. He will tell you quite quickly where your forgiveness needs lie; that is, if you will be bold enough to ask.

Celebrate Mall Music

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What kind of state are we in when Christians complain we have Christmas music playing too early or the stores decorated too soon?  We should be cheering when we have any opportunity at all to bring up the name of Christ.

Let’s stop whining about music in the mall. If we don’t, everything will be festive this and festive that. Festive is the replacement word for anything Christmas. It means anything cheerful: it means anything related to a celebration of feasts, festivals or holidays. Christmas is slipping out of our hands. All we hear is festive trees, festive school concerts and festive holidays.

Do we want festive sales, festive music and festive decorations? Before you know it we will have the festive Christ, a Christ whose only purpose is to festive!

Rejoice in every Away in the Manger, or Noel, Noel. Those are scriptural words echoing into malls and halls; a word that we are still allowed to share. Grab onto it with both hands and turn up the sound of Christians rejoicing in the Christ.

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! (Philippians 4:4-5, MSG