Too Busy to be a Blessing?

Wow the Christmas Season can be so overwhelming. Black Friday specials and other gift purchases, Christmas parties, wrapping gifts, traveling to and from family gatherings. Many times we let the busyness of the season take our eyes off of the reason for the season, the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ. He is God incarnate and His birth changed the course of humanity forever.
Particularly this time of year, we have numerous wonderful opportunities to be a blessing to others and to shine the light of Jesus to those that we come in contact with. Are you stressed out and showing your frustration in the line at Wal-Mart (guilty) or are you taking this opportunity to be different than most of the people that others come in contact with. Blackaby states in today's devotional, "You may not realize it, but your life has the potential to bless everyone you encounter. Are others strengthened and encouraged in their faith because of their relationship with you? Do you usually look at others in terms of what they can do for you or in terms of how you can encourage them?" Those are convicting words. They challenge me to leverage the opportunities that God gives me every day, and especially during the Christmas season, to bless others and to share the hope that I have in Christ which is the greatest gift that I could ever give someone.
May I challenge you as well to be a blessing this Christmas season and to proclaim to the world as the angels did, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Praise God for His grace and the wonderful gift of Christ!

Mark Gilliam
Stewardship Minister

Icy Uncertainties

Today's devotional from Henry Blackaby talked about the difference between a life built on a solid foundation of biblical truth and a life vulnerable to passing storms. The challenges of life tend to make it abundantly clear what kind of foundation you have built your life upon.

The importance of a sturdy foundation was apparent to me this morning as I drove into work under a "Winter Storm Warning" that had left a considerable amount of ice on a number of streets in Bowling Green. As I drove into work at a slower speed than usual, two things became clear to me. Things are more stressful when you don't know the condition of your foundation and you tend to enjoy the journey a lot less.

Many Christians today approach their spiritual lives with as much joylessness and trepidation as me skating my way to work this morning in my '97 Saturn. Being unsure of what your life is built on, you proceed with caution while hoping not to hit any rough patches along the way.

This is not the life that Jesus died to give you. He came that we might have "life and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). This kind of life is built on the sure foundation of salvation by grace and a relationship with God won by the perfect righteousness of Christ. Is this the kind of life you are living?

- Matt Haste, College & Singles Ministry

Justice, Mercy, Humility and Christmas

In today's "Experiencing God" devotional, Blackaby looks at Micah 6:8 where Micah tells that the Lord requires us "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Blackaby expounds on the scripture to provide us with examples of how we can apply those expectations daily. While reading I couldn't help but think of how that scripture relates to this season when we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Justice - It would be rather arrogant to think that God was just in providing a Savior. To think that the baby born to become the sacrifice for our sin is God showing justice, would completely taint the idea of grace. However, we can look at the life of Jesus and how he treated people. May that be the template we apply to our relationships. It should be our desire to treat people fairly and show love to all.

Mercy - God showed mercy when prophecy was fulfilled by the birth of Jesus. I think our view of mercy can often be one-sided as we only look at God's mercy shown to us. What about the mercy we show others? The definition of mercy is: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. Hopefully, throughout this season, and each day of our lives, our desire will be to show mercy, especially to those who have hurt or wronged us.

Humility - One of the greatest examples of humility was the birth of Jesus. While Jesus lived sinless and humbly, we are sinful, prideful people. Our nature is not to be humble. As we strive to be Christ-like may we learn to be selfless, daily showing the humble nature of the Spirit that dwells in us.

It is my prayer that through the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season, I will be reminded that the birth and life of Jesus is the perfect example of justice, mercy and humility. It is also my prayer that we will take time to reflect on our own lives to ensure we are fulfilling the requirements shown in Micah 6:8.

Wishing you and your family have a wonderful and blessed Christmas season,
Allen Cothran
Technical Ministries Director

Living With Expectancy

“You enlarge my steps” Psalm 18:36
“You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” Psalm 139:5
“Where can I go from your Spirit?” Psalm 139:7

“You live your life with the expectancy that Christ will fill you with His power in the days to come and will “Stretch” you to do things in His service that you have never done before.”
This is how Blakaby ends the devotional this morning and what an encouragement for us at this time! God is in control; God will enlarge our steps; God has us hemmed in; God’s hand is all powerful and a safe haven! Let us persevere to see the hand of God in each and very moment; in each and every interruption; in each and every crisis…
“for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:12

May God, our Rock and Redeemer, give us both comfort and courage as we face the unknown. Let us join together and be bold in the picture of God having us hemmed in –we are safe!! “For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?” Psalm 18:31
Let us savor the hope of Christ; this anchor for our soul and enlarge our tent so that others will be drawn to our precious Savior and Lord. As the Christmas story reminds us in Matthew, “They will call him, Immanuel – which means, “God with us”.
Cindy

To be in that number...

When I was a boy, there was a time when any Christian I knew was heightened in their awareness of the second coming of Christ. It was about the time of the publishing of the book The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey. The movie I Wish We'd All Been Ready was shown in one of our sister churches with depictions of what the rapture would look like. In our churches, there were Bible studies on Revelation, predictions, watching for world events - all viewed through the lense of the imminent return of Christ. It was very exciting, but also a bit unnerving to think of the second coming of Jesus.

I came to realize later in life that fear is not the emotion with which a Christian should look for the very real return of Christ. There should be other emotions and sensibilities - like anticipation. Can you imagine what it will be like to see the events predicted in the Bible come about? Or how about urgency? Are we really concerned about the fate of loved ones or friends who will not be counted in the number of those redeemed and restored during the final judgment?

I trust that each one of us examines ourselves regularly, not just at the time of the Lord's Supper, to see if our motives are in line with the Word of God, or that we are too comfortable in our own salvation. That examination should also give us pause to pray for those not counted in the number of the bride of Christ, coupled with a very real longing for Christ to use us to communicate the Gospel to them.

The end could come at any time. Is there someone you need to tell the Good News of Christ? Do it. Today.

Charles Fortney
elder

Taking responsibility

Strive always to acknowledge and take responsibility for your own sins.

When Samuel confronts David about his sin against Uriah (II Samuel 12), he says, “Why have you despised the Word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?” David’s response in verse 13 is, “I have sinned against the Lord.” This is true repentance, as expressed later in Psalm 51.
David had a clear understanding that he had sinned against God; in this clarity there is no room for excuse or denial or blame; there is simply a demand for brokenness and a return to obedience in repentance and forgiveness.
Sin despises the Word of God; sin cheapens the blood of Christ; sin damages the testimony of the believer. In contrast, the forgiveness offered through the blood of Christ highlights the Word of God, affirms the blood of Christ, repairs the testimony of the believer as grace is seen.
The book of I John is intent with instruction on forgiveness. I John 1:7… "the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin” and I John 1:9… "If we confess our sin, He is faithful to forgive…”. These promises we KNOW. Let us live in the light of this grace that we would be both responsible and repentant as we mature in the knowledge and love of our Savior. "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Cindy

Blessed Trinity

I know this doesn't necessarily fit what we are reading about today in God's Word or in our devotional but if you will permit me, I want to let you in on some things that I have learned over the last few weeks as I have been reading, praying and writing a paper for seminary on the doctrine of the Trinity.
When I began this assignment I was not sure if I could expound enough on the topic to put together a quality paper. But I have learned so much about the goodness of God in this assignment that I wanted to share just a small part of that with you. I hope it is a blessing to you as you ponder the greatness of our triune God.

The importance of the Trinity is immeasurable for many reasons, most notably, as Wayne Grudem asserts, is that “the atonement is at stake” and “justification by faith alone is threatened.” For these reasons the doctrine of the Trinity should be seen by each believer as vital to our Christian faith. I stand in awe of the power and grace of God and find it delightful that we serve such a wonderful and big God that we cannot fully understand, but we can know. Admittedly the doctrine of the Trinity is a mysterious truth that we cannot fully understand but I praise God that He is not fully explainable because that would not require any faith on our part and would affect greatly his being worthy of our worship and praise. Sometimes, we have to be ok with the fact that some of the things of God will simply have to be accepted by faith; faith in a loving God that reveals Himself to us in the Trinity so that we can more fully know His character, His goodness and His power. I am so thankful for the God that set creation in to motion, sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins and that the Son purchased the forgiveness for our sins and also gave us the gift of His sinless life that is imputed to us as believers. That same son, in His sinless life, gave to us a model of how to live. Most notably was the fact that He completely submitted His will to the Father and so we should do the same. I’m thankful that God did not leave us just with Christ’s example of a sinless life of submission to the Father but that He also sent the Holy Spirit that lives in us and gives us the ability to live as Jesus lived. May we all be able to sing with great enthusiasm, “God in three persons, Blessed Trinity.” Praise be to God.

Mark Gilliam

Stewardship Minister