I wanted to take a few minutes and offer you this simple Christmas invitation and blessing.  As we continue to wait this holy night, we are invited to place behind us the concerns of our life, shopping, presents, family and friends, decorations and the many other things that can make up this time of year.  Too infrequently, do we really stop and really try and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Remember the stable was plain, dirty and quiet, the visitors were kings from the east, but were also shepherds from the fields, Jesus received gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but was also wrapped in simple blankets and laid in a manger filled with hay.

 The words of a Christmas hymn read –

 O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him.

Christ the Lord.

I invite you to come to the stable, just as you are, smell the smells and hear the sounds of the animals, feel the hay under your feet, see the baby Jesus laying in the manger filled with hay and the young mother and father sitting nearby.  Bring everything you have as a gift to the Christ child and simply adore Him.  Worship the Baby who is God and King who left the glories of Heaven for the simple life on earth.  Adore the child who would grow to die on the cross to reconcile us with God.

I invite you to set aside the traditions of our contemporary culture, and relive the birth of the savior.  A simple birth that changed the course of history.  God entered the world through a tiny baby, Immanuel – God with us, and things have never been the same.  Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the baby Jesus.  Prepare your heart.  Take time to receive the blessing that is Immanuel and let Him change your life forever.  Amen.

This is a great video, done is a fun way that talks about the true story of Christmas and how our traditions have worked their way in.

We have begun the season of Advent in the church.  Advent is the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas where we are waiting and preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus, born as a baby.  Last Sunday we celebrated the Hanging of the Greens in the sanctuary.  This Sunday we begin a sermon series entitled “Christmas Dreams” with the focus this Sunday on The Dreams of Humanity.  Isaiah 9:1-7 talks about the different struggles that we has humans go through – pain, death, darkness, gloom, etc.  This is one of the passages that is commonly used as a prophesy of Jesus’ birth and the situation that He will be born into.

As I read this text, I realized that the troubles that are talked about in Isaiah are the same that we deal with in 2009.  We all face pain, trouble, death, darkness, gloom and conflict on a lot of different levels physical, emotional and spiritual and this is what we are waiting with and in as we prepare for Jesus’ birth during Advent.  We can dream of a better world, we can dream of a world with out the pain and brokenness that surrounds us but some how we fall short.

What are your dreams this Advent season for humanity?  What are your dreams for the future of all people in all countries?

Share them with us as we wait for the coming of the one who will bring those dreams to reality.

Thank you to all who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard -

For those who have served in times of war and in times of peace -

For those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, for those who have seen their friends taken from them, for those who have returned home with scars on the inside as well as the out -

For those families who have waved good-bye to a father or mother, a son or daughter and stayed at home and served their families and communities as their loved ones served others -

For those who serve active duty and the reserve -

For those who help in times of natural disaster and man-made disaster -

Thank you for all that you do and all that give to help this nation and keep us free, and to help those around the world in need.

There is a story about a boy in Sunday School who is drawing a picture.  The teacher asks him what he is drawing and he answers, “I’m drawing a picture of God”.  “But no one knows what God looks like.” is the teacher’s response.  “They will when I’m done.” says the boy.

There is a movie coming out entitled “Oh My God” and deals with the question “Who is God?”  Check out the trailer below.

I think that too often our idea of who God is, is too small.  In fact there was a book entitled ‘You God is Too Small’.  Scripture tells us that we are created in God’s image, but in turn do we create God in our image?  How would you answer the question “Who is God?”

I’m looking forward to your comments.

How hard is prayer  for you?  Do you get discouraged easily?  Think about these questions as you read on.

This Sunday’s parable is the story of a widow and a judge from Luke 18:1-8. 

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray all the time and never give up.  He said, “In a city there was a judge who didn’t fear God or respect people.  In that city there was also a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’  For a while the judge refused. But later he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or respect people.  Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice. Otherwise, she will keep coming and wear me out.’”

Then the Lord added, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says.  Won’t God grant his chosen people justice when they cry out to him day and night? Is he slow to help them?  I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

This has always been a strange parable to me and until recently, pushed it a bit to the side.  What are your images and thoughts  as you read  this story of Jesus’?  Lately this has  become convicting to me, especially the last sentence.  Having endurance in prayer means being faithful and being faithful means having endurance at times.  Sometimes when the results don’t come on our timetable, it is easy to get frustrated and lose heart, but this is a call to be faithful in prayer at all times and in all seasons.  Paul picks up this idea in Ephesians 6:18, Pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert with every kind of effort and request for all the saints.

What keeps you from being faithful  in prayer to a loving and caring God who wants to give us what we need?

Your thoughts and comments are welcome.

I came across a website called PostSecret,  http://postsecret.blogspot.com/, where people mail their secrets and confessions on a post card and this guy posts them on the site and has written about 5 books that include many.  There is also a video about 3/4 of the way down of the founder doing an interview with one of the morning shows where he talks about the different reasons some people do this.  It is interesting to read some of these and to hear that the founder says that many times these are things we can not share in church.  I think that probably he is right.  Too often we are afraid to share who we really are in church where this should really be a place where we can feel comfortable and safe to share what is really happening and what we are feeling in our lives.

People probably feel comfortable and safe in sharing these because it is anonymous.  How much better would it be to share in a safe place where people will support and love you through your struggles, fears, and confessions; instead of feeling like you can’t share because of religious taboos.  The church should be that safe place; a place and a people who love and support each other and who help each other to grow and move forward to be who God has created them to be. 

 Here is a link to a review / article from Relevant magazine about the book and site:  http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/features/18593-why-are-we-all-so-into-postsecret

Sunday’s text comes from Luke 12:13-21, the story that Jesus told about a man who had a lot and built barns to store it all.  Read the text below:

Then someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  But Jesus said to him, “Mister, who appointed me to be a judge or arbitrator over you people?”  Then he said to them, “Be careful to guard yourselves against every kind of greed, for a person’s life doesn’t consist of the amount of possessions he has.”  Then he told them a parable. He said, “The land of a certain rich man produced good crops.  So he began to think to himself, ‘What should I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’  Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my grain and goods in them.  Then I’ll say to my soul, “Soul, you’ve stored up plenty of good things for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.”‘  But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Now who will get the things you’ve accumulated?’  That’s how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself and isn’t rich toward God.”

This story has me thinking about our society and how rich we really are and how we use and / or store away what we have been given and earned.  There is a fine line between being greedy and being smart; a line between hoarding what we have been given, and using our blessings to bless others.  We have all been affected by the resession that we are currently in, many of those “barns” have fallen.  My question for you today is – “Where do you see barns in our world being built and what should our response  be as believers and as the church body to what we have been blessed with?

I look forward to your comments and input.

I remeber exactly where I was when I heard the news of the attacks, as I’m sure many of you can too.  I had just returned from a breakfast committee meeting and turned on the radio and heard the news.  As all of us, I was shocked, angry, hurt, saddened, worried, etc. I called my wife and had her turn on the news and then sat and watched the coverage in disbelief.

Later that afternoon, I attended a prayer service to pray for the nation and all who were affected by the events of the day. One of the hymns that we sang was “It is Well with My Soul”. As I listened to those around me sing, I began to feel that it is NOT well with my soul, the events of the day were not right and the hatred and anger that brought them about was not right and we should not be saying, “it is well”.

I will never forget the feelings of that day, but I can work to make the world a better place.  The events of 9/11 came about from anger and hatred and have fostered anger, hatred and distrust around the world today.  I refuse to give into those feelings.  It is not well with my soul and I will keep working and praying for a better world.

Join me in praying for peace today, a peace around the world that comes through our faith and then put that faith into action and go and work for peace in whatever situation you are in.  We will never forget and I hope to keep the memory of the people and the events alive by working for peace today.

Many times when we talk about church, the word community is either said or implied. But what really does ‘church community’ mean?

Community is defined by Webster’s as
1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a locality inhabited by such a group.
3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually prec. by the): the business community; the community of scholars.

Most often we think of community as those people we see face to face, work, school, neighborhood, church, family, etc.; but I think that the idea of community can be expanded.  The long standing idea that community is a group of people that we see and interact with is being expanded upon in the digital age through different media such as facebook, blogs, websites, texting, email groups, etc.  Just as in groups that you meet face to face with, interaction, caring, conversation, sharing, can be done in the virtual world.

Is this going to replace the commonly held idea of community?  I really hope not, because I enjoy being with people and spending time with them, but the online and virtual communities can be just as important.  Through these avenues we can join together with people from our past (high school, college, military), people from other parts of the world, people with other beliefs and views.  In general, our communities can be greater and more varied than we have had before.  I think this is a great opportunity but should not become the only way we interact with others.

What do you think?  Where is your strongest community?