Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then he said to them, ‘Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “It is good for God’s people to celebrate.”

It is good for God’s people to celebrate. That’s one of the reasons the Jewish calendar is based upon a cycle of feasts and celebrations. There are dozens of them each year, big and small, twenty-eight of which are national holidays in the state of Israel. (Those people are serious about their celebrating!)

In Nehemiah 8:10 Nehemiah instructed the people to hold a day of celebration and feasting. They needed to do this because “the joy of the Lord is your strength”. Joy and fun are important parts of celebration because they lift our spirits. Celebration takes our minds off of the cares of life and helps us to simply relax as we enjoy good food and good company.

Setting aside special times for joyful celebration was God’s idea, and it is good for us.

Christmas is such a time. In this case the focus of the joyful celebration is the birth of Christ, and it includes gathering with family and friends, feasting with good food and music, and exchanging gifts. All of it done as a means of celebrating what God has done for us by sending His Son to earth to live among us and to save us from our sins. That certainly merits a good celebration.

It might seem strange that God would be pleased and even honored by a good Christmas party. But if the joy and celebration, the feasting and the gift-giving, the singing and the laughing, is all done for the right reason (in honor of Jesus), then God is pleased.

So party hardy my friends. Enjoy the parties, the feasting, and the gift-giving because it is good for God’s people to celebrate. Just keep the focus where it’s supposed to be (on Jesus), and then enjoy yourself.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God loves to use ordinary people to do great things.”

Of all the places God could have chosen for Jesus to be born, Bethlehem was one of the least likely locations. It was an out-of-the-way backwater little village that few people had ever heard of and still fewer people ever went to. There was no reason for people to go there. There was nothing there.

Likewise, of all the people God could have chosen to be the human parents of the baby Jesus, why Mary and Joseph? She was an uneducated teenage peasant girl. He was a simple carpenter of no distinction. Why them?

It would have seemed to have made more sense for Jesus to have been born to a High Priest and his wife. Then Jesus would have grown up as religious nobility. And as for location, why not Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem? Talk about a high profile birth! The much anticipated baby of the High Priest and His wife, born under the best and most sanitary of circumstances in the cosmopolitan city of Jerusalem. Surely that makes more sense than a filthy animal shelter on the outskirts of a place like Bethlehem.

But no. Bethlehem it was. To Mary and Joseph. In the hay. Among the animals.

God actually prefers to use the common and the ordinary instead of spectacular locations and famous celebrities. Oh yes, the world does need our Billy Grahams, Rick Warrens, and Lottie Moons. High profile people filling stadiums, writing best selling books, and doing pioneering mission work are needed. And without question the Sistine Chapel is a remarkable work of religious art and architecture that has inspired millions of people for hundreds of years. All of that is needed.

But God does His best work, and most of His work, through the simple circumstances and everyday lives of ordinary people like you and me. The Christian world is populated almost entirely by people like you and me, not like Billy Graham and Lottie Moon. And most places of worship in the world look more like your church and mine, not like the Sistine Chapel.

The nativity scene in Bethlehem serves to remind us that God loves to use ordinary circumstances like yours and mine, and simple everyday people like you and me, to accomplish the majority of His work in this world.

Your current circumstances are very useful to God. Your life matters to God. YOU matter to God. Bethlehem proves it.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: “Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Jesus should be the center of our attention.”

With respect to Christmas, author O.S. Hawkins invites us to consider the scene in the famous painting “The Adoring Shepherds” by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. If you haven’t seen it I encourage you to take a moment now to Google it.

In this picture we see Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds gathered around the baby Jesus. The night outside is deep and dark. The scene inside the manger is shrouded in shadows, to the point that we can hardly distinguish the figures around the cradle. However, there is a bright beam of light (heavenly light) illuminating the baby Jesus. The baby shines and radiates and is clearly the center of attention.

That is as it should be. Christmas is about Jesus. Celebrating Christmas is supposed to remind us that Jesus is not just the center of attention in the nativity scene, He is the center of attention in human history. Human history is actually divided into epochs marked by the birth of Jesus, B.C. (Before Christ); and A.D. (Anno Domini, or “the year of our Lord”). So the designation “A.D.” marks the year of the birth of Christ. Recorded history leaps from the year 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. based upon the birth of Jesus.

Yes, Jesus is the center of attention. He is the center of attention as we celebrate Christmas; He is the center of attention in human history; and He should be the center of our attention in everyday life.

I encourage you to use these days of Advent, which lead us up to the celebration of the birth of our Savior, to put Jesus back into the place in your life where He is supposed to be. Make sure He is the center of your attention.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.” John 14:27 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Jesus brings the peace the world so desperately needs.”

The other day the news reported that President Trump has initiated steps to end the USA’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He is determined to get us out of that conflict by the end of his first term. We’re not winning the war and there’s really no prospect of us winning it. After seventeen long years, the Taliban is once again on the rise and Afghanistan is riddled with internal dissent and factions. So we are simply going to withdraw our troops and leave the situation for the Afghans to resolve for themselves.

The end of the war in Afghanistan may end up similar to the end of the war in Vietnam. We will simply leave, and the enemy will have won. It’s not President Trump’s fault. As was true for President Nixon in 1969 with Vietnam, President Trump inherited this mess and is now simply trying to get us out of it.

In the late 1980s the Norwegian Academy of Sciences assembled noted world historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India to study the history of armed conflict throughout the course of human history. They discovered that since 3600 B.C. (more than 5600 years), the world has known only 292 years of peace. There have been 14,531 wars in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed (that’s over 3.5 billion). Right now there are over 60 armed conflicts taking place somewhere in the world. Some of them are large, many of them are small, but all of them have resulted in deaths, injuries, and displacement of innocent civilians.

In Isaiah 9:6 the prophet identifies Jesus as “The Prince of Peace”. In John 14:27 Jesus said that one of the reasons He came to earth was to bring us His peace. Then in Galatians 5:22 the Apostle Paul tells us that one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is peace. That means that one of the character traits the Holy Spirit develops and brings out in the life of a maturing Christian is the peace of Jesus. So as a Christian you have the peace of Jesus in you, and flowing out of you.

As we celebrate Christmas this year we need to remember that the world desperately needs the peace that only Jesus can give. As His disciples, we should be sharing the peace of Jesus with a very troubled world. “Peace on earth, good will toward men” is more than just a catchy lyric in a song. It’s a gift that Jesus offers to the world. Are you spreading the peace of Jesus at Christmastime?

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: “While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son …” Luke 2:6-7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Enjoy being with your family at Christmas.”

One of the most popular Christmas songs of all time is Bing Crosby’s “I’ll be home for Christmas”. If you look closely at the lyrics you realize that it’s actually about someone who will not be home for Christmas. For some reason the person is away from home and will have to be content with being home only in their dreams. It’s really kind of sad. When I hear it I usually think of a young man or woman in the military, serving in some remote and dangerous place in another part of the world.

“I’ll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me;
Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents under the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me, where the lovelight gleams,
I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”

In his little Christmas devotional guide “The Christmas Code” O.S. Hawkins points out that the manger scene in Luke 2:6-7 is really all about family. There we have a mother and father bringing their baby into the world, laying him in a crib, and then gazing at their newborn in awe and wonder.

Family is important to God. God is pro-family. Family was His idea. In the beginning chapters of Genesis we read that God brought Adam and Eve together in the Garden of Eden and instructed them to make babies. The Bible then is filled with detailed instructions about how family life is to be lived, and the clear implication is that we are to value, protect, and nurture family life.

Christmas is a time that draws families together. We drive long distances to get home. Big families crowd into small homes, sleeping on floors and couches. We give gifts, catch up on family news, eat too much, take lots of pictures, tell bad jokes, and just enjoy being together with loved ones.

As you prepare for your Christmas celebrations I encourage you to prepare for and cherish quality family time. God is pro-family and we should be too. And remember, if you are aware of someone who doesn’t have family to be with, consider including them in some of your family celebrations.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Celebrating Christmas”

Our Bible verse for today: ‘Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The end result of celebration should be joy.”

One of my favorite Christmas songs isn’t really a Christmas song at all. It’s the old Baptist Hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” The first stanza goes like this:

“Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!”

As I said, it’s not a Christmas song but it probably should be. It’s a beautiful song that celebrates Jesus and it reminds us that the end result of celebration should be joy. What makes any celebration unique, whether it’s a birthday, an anniversary, an awards ceremony, or anything else, is that we take time out of our ordinary lives to honor and observe something that is notable and special. Doing so bestows special significance on the person or event, and it brings joy to all those involved.

Our celebration of Christmas should serve to bring us great joy. It should remind us of how much God loves us; it should celebrate the truth that Jesus came into the world to take away our sins; and it should be an occasion that honors Him and which brings genuine joy to us.

But that will only be true if we stay focused on the real reason for the season. And we will have to be intentional about that. We will have to do things to keep reminding ourselves that this really is all about Jesus. Otherwise our focus will be on gift lists and guest lists; it will be on shopping, and decorations, and preparing meals for large groups of people and … well, just “and”. Our focus will be on a hundred other things. We will be hurried, hassled, and frazzled, and we probably will not be especially joyful.

Observing Advent helps us to keep the focus where it needs to be. Observing Advent helps to restore the simple and pure joy of celebrating the birth of our Savior. Observing Advent will help us to be joyful for the right reasons.

The end result of our Christmas celebration should be joy, deep and genuine joy.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is: