Something Greater

This past week was Thanksgiving.  This is truly one of my favorite holidays because it lacks the commercialism that the others have.  It is a time for fellowship and community.  It brings me great joy to sit around the table with my family.  Next week is the first Sunday in Advent.  Advent is made up of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.  It is a time of preparation for the coming Savior.  This year, we will have a new advent theme.  As in years past, we will remember advent with the advent wreath…remembering the hope, love, joy and peace that comes through Christmas and our Savior.  This year, we will also consider what Jesus was coming to do on Christmas and what He is coming to complete at His second coming. 

This Christmas Season, we have a choice to make.  It is approaching quickly.  We have a choice of whether we will follow the world's path this Christmas or follow the path of Jesus.  Christmas has become so commercialized that it is difficult to figure out which we are following.  Before you tune me out, I am not saying there is anything wrong with gift giving.  I am saying there is a potential problem with how we, as Christians, celebrate this time of the year.

Ø  We could find ourselves sacrificing our time with the Lord in order to 'celebrate' His birthday. (John 15:1-12) That may sound odd, but we get in such a rush at Christmas that we end up not spending time with the Lord.  We end up not doing our devotionals and not spending time in prayer.  We end up not reading His word because we have run out of time and energy.  There are lots of great things we can do this time of the year…and none of them necessarily bad…but if they take away from the One we serve, there is a problem. 

Ø  We could find ourselves sacrificing our tithes in order to buy things for His birthday.  (Matthew 6:19-21)  We buy things we cannot afford to please people.  We may struggle giving our tithes as it is.  During Christmas, we find that we don't have enough money to tithe so we can give gifts to others.  Giving gifts is not a problem.  But, if it puts us in such a financial bind that we go in debt, we are being disobedient and not being good stewards of what we have been given.

Ø  We could find ourselves sacrificing our love and joy in order to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  (Scripture:  Matthew 5:14-16)  With all that is going on, it is easy to lose our patience and certainly to lose our joy.  We could easily forget that we are called to love others as Jesus loves us.  It is not easy to find love when you are fighting for deals and going in debt to buy stuff and rushing around like a mad person to try and cram everything in. 

So, I ask…whose applause are you seeking? 

A young violinist was giving a concert one day in front of a large crowd.  He ended his concert with a flourish, and all the people stood up and applauded, shouting, "Bravo! Bravo! What a performance!"  But the young man put his head down.  As the people continued to clap, his eyes began to fill with tears.  There was no smile on his face. 

All of a sudden as the applause began to die, an old man sitting up in the balcony stood up and began to clap.  As soon as the violinist saw that, a smile came across his face.  He wiped the tears from his eyes.  He smiled and held up his violin and walked off the stage. 

A man in the wings said, "How come you were sad when the people stood up, but when that old man stood up, you became glad again?" 

"Because the old man was my violin teacher," the young musician explained, "and unless he stood up, my concert would have been a failure, because he is the only one who knows all the nuances of the music I played.  He knows exactly how each piece is supposed to be played.  It does not matter whether the people stand and applaud.  I want to know if my teacher is going to stand and applaud. (Story taken from the devotional by Tony Evans, "Time to get serious")

Again, whose applause do you seek?  Do you seek applause of the Master or of the people?  (Scripture:  John 12:42-44)

How you celebrate this Christmas may be an indication of whose applause you are seeking…Jesus IS your something greater this Christmas!

Thanksgiving Basics

This week is Thanksgiving.  You may be asked several times about what you are thankful for.  I have enjoyed reading posts on Facebook where people post one thing each day which they are thankful.  I try to also practice this daily with my children.  We talk about one thing they are thankful for each day.  It is important that we have a thankful heart because that is a heart that spends less time complaining or focused on ourselves and more time focused on the One who has blessed us. 

For me, this Thanksgiving is extra special.  Last year, we spent the day after Thanksgiving waiting at Duke for my Dad to have Pancreatic surgery.  It reminded me that life is short and we can't let the valuable time we have here go to waste.  Personally, wasted time is the time we spend complaining and whining, ungrateful, angry, and resentful.  In contrast, I want to read a scripture today which identifies to me 4 ways to live this life.  Maybe this will give us something to refocus our thanksgiving this year.

Romans 12:9-21

Paul packs a lot into these short verses.  There is much wisdom to be gained.  I want to just focus on four areas that might change our perspective and give us a new outlook for this Thanksgiving…and maybe in living life.  I know I could certainly use the reminder.  Note that these four things all work together.

1 – Loving

We are reminded to be loving to one another.  This includes putting others first.  It even means showing kindness to our enemies.  Jesus first taught this to us.  There is nothing easy about any of this.  People are unlovable much of the time.  I know I certainly can be.  To love others and to love our neighbors goes back to what we have learned from the Old Testament and also from the teachings of Jesus.  We must first love God.  If we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, then we find it is possible to love others.  I'm not saying this will ever be easy.  I am saying that it is only possible by the love of God which lives in us.  But, if we are loving, it certainly can turn the world upside down.

2 – Rejoicing

We are told to rejoice in hope and rejoice with those who rejoice.  There should be rejoicing going on.  We have a hope like no other and in that hope comes rejoicing.  That means that even though we are crushed, downtrodden, persecuted, and beaten up, we can rejoice in the Lord who is our strength and our shield.  We will not find long term rejoicing in our own accomplishments.  We find true rejoicing in the Lord.  We find true rejoicing in what He has done for us.  We can rejoice even when we don't feel like rejoicing if we find the source of our joy.

3 – Praying

Prayer is so important…it is a privilege…it is a gift.  The problem is that we don't often view it as such.  We are blessed to be able to come before the maker of the heavens and earth.  We are privileged to be able to lay our cares and concerns at the feet of Jesus.  We should be overjoyed that we can be in constant communication with the One who truly does care for us.  If we are going to rejoice, if we are going to love others, if we are going to live this life as He would have us to, we must spend time in prayer.  There are no exceptions to that.  And when we can't seem to find the words to pray, sit in the presence of the Lord.  He already knows.  Just sit and listen.  He has much to say.

4 - Serving

Finally, serving is important.  We are told to serve the Lord, serve one another, take care of the needs of each other, serve our enemies.  In other words, we are to serve the Lord first and let Him guide us as we live a life of service.  What does service do?  It keeps our mind off of what is wrong with us.  If I am doing something for someone else, I am not worried about me.  As long as I am giving of myself, then I am humbled and am placing others first.  Serving cannot be done effectively without love.  Do you see how these are all coming together?  If I am praying and putting God first, He is directing me to love others and to serve others.  If I do that, I am rejoicing at what He is doing.  I spread that rejoicing to others, who in turn, serve and love God and serve and love others. 

How about at thanksgiving, we change our attitudes, our minds, and our hearts?  Why don't we instead pray continuously about where God is leading and find ourselves loving, serving…and rejoicing through it all.  That could not only change this holiday, but change our lives and the lives of those around us.  That could be a great start to the Christmas season as well. 

Reconstruction Part 2

Last week, we looked at the first step to reconstruction…That included hearing, understanding and implementing God's Word.  We hear what God has for us, we begin to understand what He is trying to tell us, and we put what He says into practice.  That is an important first step if we are going to reconstruct our lives, our churches and our world for Him.

Today, we will look at step 2.  Step two includes confession and commitment.

Now, remember that the people of Jerusalem have just finished celebrating the Festival of the Booths.  Now, the festival has ended. 

Nehemiah 9:1-3 – First, we see that this is a time of preparation for prayer.  They are getting ready to come before the Lord as a community…as His people.  They begin with fasting and in humbleness.  They are coming before the Lord as people who have done wrong…they have sinned…they have been disobedient and they are showing the signs of it.  The Israelites have a special history and confession because they are the chosen people.  They confess their sins and the sins of those before them that led them to this point.  They are getting ready to pray.

Nehemiah 9:6- end of chapter 9

Notice that Ezra begins this prayer with an acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done.  Praising and remembering is important.  After it is acknowledged who God is and His great power, then they recounted what God had done, where their people had sinned, and where they were today.  They end this prayer with a commitment to God.  What was the commitment?

Nehemiah 10:28-29

They commit to do as God's Word has instructed.  It goes on to explain what God's Word is telling them and how they will obey.

Here is what I hear from this scripture for us today:

1 - We need to prepare ourselves when we come before Him.  We do not have the rituals and ways of preparation to show our humility.  In that, I think we can lose some of our respect and awe of the One who is listening and the One we serve.  We should prepare our hearts to come before the King.  When we realize who He is, we realize who we are not.  We also realize our sins and shortcomings.

2 – When come before Him, we should acknowledge His great power and His great love for us.  We tend to instantly go right into asking what we want without thanking Him and acknowledging this great power.  We are praying to the creator God…we are praying in the name of the One who gave His life for you and me.

3 – We should take time to think back and remember how good God has been to us.  That is often difficult to do if we are in a trial.  We can easily find ourselves in difficult situations and we don't know where God is.  When we are in the midst of the storm, we are calling out for Him and may not see Him.  But when we look back, we are comforted because we see His hands taking care of us every step of the way even though we didn't even notice it then.  We can become so consumed with what is going on that we don't realize that God has it taken care of.  God's got this.

We also have to admit where we have gone wrong.  We do so many things in haste and disobedience.  We go our own way, do our own thing, ignore the warning signs and then wonder where God is.  When we look back we see the hand of God, but we also see where we have strayed.  The praise in that is that although we strayed, God helped us.  The reminder is that we stray and we need to focus on Him.

4 – Lastly, they made a commitment that they would be obedient to God and His Word.  There is a reason we still have the scriptures.  It isn't because it was a really good book.  There have been lots of really good books written over the years.  It is because this book isn't a book, but the Word of God for us, the people of God.  What if God's people made a commitment to follow the Word?  While it will not look like it did in Nehemiah's time, it will look like what God wants it to be if we are obedient.

Do we want to reconstruction?  Maybe it is time for confession and commitment so that we become more like what He has called us to be and less like what the world would have us to be.