Christmas

During this season, may we remember what Christmas is about. It is not about presents or cheesy Christmas songs, Christmas parties or ice skating. It is not about family traditions or Santa Claus. Those things are blessings,but without the giver of all blessings, we wouldn't have Christmas at all. Without the cross, there is no manger. I have been wondering lately about Mary: about how she must have felt to hold God's son in her arm. I wonder how she felt to see her son die on a cross. Christ is her life, her love, her LORD, and her baby boy. I cannot imagine that intimate relationship she had with him--to know that her precious son is also her savior. May we have this same, personal intimacy with Christ. May Christ be everything to us, not only on Christmas, but every day of our lives. Jesus Christ is the best Christmas gift ever----He is the gift that never stops giving.

Dignity

This week I learned a lot about dignity in my own life. On Wednesday I went to Asheville to worship with the homeless and eat with them. I was told that when we talk to the homeless and build relationships with them, it gives them their dignity back. What I learned though, is that it gave my my dignity too. The OED defines this word in this way: The quality of being worthy or honourable; worthiness, worth, nobleness, excellence.

My worth does not come from myself but from Christ alone. Due to this, dignity does not come from my strength, but from my brokenness, because it is when I am broken that I understand how worthy Christ is, and begin to let him give me worthiness.

In Asheville, I felt broken. There is joy in being broken. There is joy in not pretending. There is dignity in not pretending.

Business

I haven't written in a while, because I have been so busy. Business is the only thing that I loathe about the academic life. As the hectic semester drags on, I become concerned about myself: my grades, my reputation, my ministry, my future, etc. I forget about God, His word, and being in communion with HIM every day. I try to fit him into my schedule, instead of fitting my schedule into His majestic love for me.

Did God created us to be busy all the time, or were we meant to live in a more silent stillness? Is it possible to be peaceful and still at heart while being externally busy? Does our business prevent us from living in God's joy, or can God use hecticness for His good? Is being too busy a sin?

I find that not only am I busy with school, but my mind is always busy. I am always seeking answers and thirsting for more of God's knowledge. I am always trying to distinguish between worldly ways and His ways. While I believe that He delights in our thirst for His wisdom, we are also to come to Him as children and sit at His feet. Children ask good questions, but they are also content with simply being with the ones that they look up to, regardless of whether they got answers. How often do we forget to come to God as children?

A Mission Trip Every Day

For the past several months, I have been questioning whether I am called into ministry or not, but isn't every day a day of ministry? What is the difference between being a preacher and a social worker who is ministering to families? What is the difference between going to Africa for 40 years and ministering to children and families through art therapy? What is the difference between running an orphanage in a foreign country and serving your teachers as a principal for 36 years? I am at a point in which I am not distinguishing between going into ministry and having an impact for Christ through working a secular job. God can, already is, and will continue to use any career choice, skill, or geographical location to bring others to himself. We each have a part in the body of Christ. We all have different passions, but we are serving one Lord.  Wherever you are, you are a minister of the Gospel.

Proverbs 17:17

Lately, I have been irritated at people who pick and choose when to act like a friend. Proverbs 17:17 states that a friend loves at all times. This verse is quite clear. How can we choose when to show that we care, when the God commands us that we are to love at all times? You either care or you don't. You either show it or you don't. There is no between.

In the same way, we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. Hands reach out and feet walk. We are either going to reach out or not. God does not desire lukewarm Christians. Are we on fire for God or not? We cannot serve two masters.

Building a Christ Centered Relationship

This is a devotional given by Leslie Ludy.

Our culture has set a predictable pattern for beginning relationships today. We are familiar with the routine: We see someone we are attracted to, our eyes meet theirs, we conveniently end up in a conversation with them, we spend a couple of days or weeks flirting until one of us finally admits we’d like to go out, and we start an emotions-led dating relationship in which we always try to present our best side to the other person. Even Christian relationships tend to follow this pattern; the only difference is that we say Jesus Christ is at the center and attempt to prove that fact by praying together, attending church together, and putting a few boundaries around our physical interaction.

But when emotions are leading the way, spiritual oneness cannot be developed. When we are careening along on the unpredictable river of feelings, the current takes control and sweeps us in whatever direction it wants to. We are no longer able to allow Christ to be in total control of the relationship. The other dangerous aspect to consider is that emotional oneness—at its peak—desires to be expressed through physical touch. When emotions are allowed to run rampant, physical temptation becomes all the more intense and harder to control.

The great thing about first having a season of Christ-centered friendship is that a spiritual foundation can begin to develop before those emotions ever get in the way. In a friendship, there is not as much temptation to present only our best side to the other person in hopes that they will like us. We are free to simply be ourselves. We are able to see the other person for who they really are—rather than a smoothed-over, third-date version of their real self. In a friendship, we can tell far more easily if we are on the same page with the other person spiritually, by observing his life in an everyday environment, watching how he treats others, listening to the words he says, and noticing where he puts his time and energy. And if something more is going to happen in the relationship, we can allow our spiritual connection to draw us together, rather than mere physical or emotional attraction. Emotional and physical intimacy can be enjoyed at their fullest when spiritual intimacy comes first.

A Missionary's Struggle

Right now I am longing to be on African soil doing the work of my Risen Lord. There is a seemingly inexpressible loneliness in my heart that only God and other missionaries understand. I can find no words to express how much I long to be spreading the Gospel to and with Africans right now. When I am alone, I feel lonely. When I am in a crowded room, I feel lonely. Regardless of this, I do know that God is using me here. Wherever I am planted for a season, I know that I need to bloom in God's presence. You don't have to cross the seas to be a missionary, you just have to see the cross. Amen!