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If we are not constantly reminded we will quickly forget.

How true!  Anyone else out there shaking their head up and down saying right on! amen! I’m picking up what you’re putting down?  Think about it.  The Lord God gave us these magnificent, incomprehensible brains.  These brains govern our every thought, our every movement, our every action.  Our brains make our heart pump, our faces smile, our eyes cry, our minds love.  Really, it is quite extraordinary what our brains do when you stop and think about it.

But, one thing my brain is not so good at is remembering.  Yours too?  I write notes, make lists, tell another person to remind me, set alarms on my phone, email myself, calendar, tie a string around my finger – not really but some folks do.  All of this and more to remember to do what I’m “supposed” to be doing.  In part, it’s because we have very busy lives and there are just a lot of things to remember.  But, it could also be because we fill our brains chock full of “useless stuff” that takes up very valuable brain space, or at least that’s the case for me.

The Word of God is full of reminders, in fact, it is in totality a reminder.  A reminder of who God is.  A reminder of who Jesus is.  A reminder of what He’s done for us.  A reminder of how we are to live our lives.  A reminder of His power.  A reminder of His hope. A reminder… The entire Bible is filled with reminders.   His Inspired Word uses the word “remember” anywhere from 250 times to 357 times, depending on your translation.  Whatever those numbers might be in your Bible, it’s a strong message.  The inference of the word “remember” can be found many hundreds of times.  Does that tell us something?

“Remember” means to bring to one’s mind, to retain in our memories.  The opposite is “forget.” The word “forget” can be found anywhere from 60 times to 90 times, again depending on your translation. Well, I’ll tell you right now I’m super good at that.  No amount of Jeopardy, puzzles, mind games, or supplements on the shelves out there right now would change that. I’m sensing I’m not alone! I know another Person who is good at forgetting — when ours sins are forgiven, they are forgotten. Amen!

Here’s the thing, God knew we would struggle with remembering that’s why there are constant reminders. He knew the world would pull us in many different directions and evil forces would encourage us to forget. But, He gave us His amazing power through His Word and the Holy Spirit to combat those forces. Here are a few of His “remembers”:

We to remember God’s commands:

But from eternity to eternity

the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear him,

and his righteousness toward the grandchildren

of those who keep his covenant,

who remember to observe his precepts.

Psalm 103:17-18

We are to remember our responsibilities towards each other:

They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.  Gal 2:10

We are to remember Jesus’s death:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread,  and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

The Bible not only talks of our remembering, but it also talks of God’s remembering.

God always remembers his promises:

For he remembered his sacred promise to Abraham his servant.  Psalm 105:42

God always remembers his people:

The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the LORD. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.  After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from the LORD.”  1 Samuel 1:19-20

The Bible also tells us the results of remembering.

Remembering leads to rejoicing:

Come and see the wonders of God;

his acts for humanity are awe-inspiring.

He turned the sea into dry land,

and they crossed the river on foot.

There we rejoiced in him.  Psalm 66:5-6

Remembering leads to repentance:

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.  Matthew 5:23-24

Remembering leads to hope:

Yet I call this to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed,

for His mercies never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness!

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

Lamentations 3:21-24

The only way we can remember is to be reminded.  The only way to be reminded is to be in the Word of God.

If we are not constantly reminded we will quickly forget.

I hope you’re digging into some study in this New Year that will produce fruit in 2023 for you. I know it can be hard, but oh how sweet the fruit. I have a dear friend whose motto for 2022 was “New Year, New Me.” As believers, that should be our everyday motto, being obedient and open to change will allow the Lord to sanctify and make us holy on a daily basis. Remember, believing in Jesus is just the beginning.

The New Year brought me into a study of Romans. Today is day 11 of the New Year and I’m still only on verse 8, it is rabbit hole city!

Let me say first of all that your faith in God is becoming known throughout the world.  How I thank God through Jesus Christ for each one of you.  Romans 1:8

This verse right here is one of the reasons I’ve been moving so slow.  Romans is chocked full of really cool, thought provoking scripture.  Remember, scripture is to be thought about, it does absolutely no good to read scripture or memorize scripture, if it doesn’t produce change in our lives.  If reading scripture is not causing us to think, we might as well not read it.  Harsh, but true. Goodness, I keep getting off track (another reason I’m only on verse 8), so I’ll get to the point.  When I read Romans  I was struck.  Verses 1-7 were some meaty greetings from Paul in which he immediately starts talking about the Good News.  I love it, he doesn’t wait to make friends, or wait for just the right moment, or wait to be asked, or wait for the right setting, he hops in with both feet to proclaim Jesus to a group of people he has never met (we should make note). Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome, Jews and Gentiles.  No doubt, the Christians (and others) had heard about the Apostle Paul, but in Verse 8 he’s letting them know, he has heard about them too.  What had he heard?  That the Christians in Rome had an excellent reputation and their strong faith was making itself known around the world.  This is what gave me pause and left me with many of my own questions to ponder. What do people say about me?  What do people say about my church?  What do people say about my faith?  What’s my reputation?  Is there something else I would prefer they say about me or my church? I’m a a verb person, so after mulling all that over, my next thought was what is the best way to get the public to recognize my faith, my Jesus? Have you ever thought about that?  How do I make my faith known to the whole world, or at least my little corner of it? Well, the answers came quite quickly, maybe because they are quite obvious.  If I want people to recognize my faith, to recognize my Jesus, I have to speak my faith and live my faith.  I have to act like Jesus would.   My life has to line up with my lips.  And just as important as what I do do to speak and live my faith, is what I don’t do. Over and over in Paul’s New Testament writings he talks about faith reputations.  Remember, if we claim to belong to Jesus, our words and our actions are reflections of Him, not us.  It is His reputation at risk, not ours.

The word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God.  1 Thessalonians 1:8

Paul’s message to the Romans and the Thessalonians should encourage us to ring in a New Year, New Me.  We must be the people who ring the word of the Lord everywhere we go to those we know and those we don’t know.

A person is either a missionary or a mission-field.

Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom and her family saved the lives of approximately 800 Jews during the Holocaust.  She grew up in a devoutly religious family and during World War II she and her family protected Jews fleeing the Nazi’s behind a secret wall in her family’s watch shop in Haarlem, Netherlands.  Betrayed by a fellow Dutchman, the entire family was arrested and imprisoned.  Corrie would be the only one of her family to survive their imprisonment and the Ravensbruck concentration camp.  After her release in December 1944, Corrie ten Boom became an author and eventually settled in California writing her memoir, The Hiding Place, and many devotionals.

Faith inspired the ten Boom family to serve society, offering shelter, food, money, a hiding place, to those in need. In this tradition, the family held a deep respect for the Jewish community in Amsterdam, considering them “God’s ancient people.”

I read the above quote a couple of weeks ago and can’t get it out of my head.  I have really been chewing on it – am I a missionary or a mission-field?  Is my life consistently in such disarray (so far from Jesus) that it looks like a mission field?  Or, am I consistently working on a relationship with Jesus that would give me the power and strength to assist on a mission-field?  Are you a missionary or a mission-field?

The word mission comes from a Latin word meaning “to send.”  Hmmm…  Where have we heard that before?  A mission is a special quest or a special assignment to bring aid, healing, support, education, evangelism, Jesus to other people.  One who is sent on this mission is called a missionary.  The place where the special assignment takes place is called the mission-field, where the need is.

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”    Matthew 28:18-20

As Christians we are called to go to the mission-fields and be missionaries.  In fact, we are commissioned to do that by Jesus.  He has given the instruction, we must take the action.  That’s obedience. 

Go, tell the world about Him. Who He is. What He’s done. He’s commissioned us as missionaries to the lost-world mission-field.

This post first published Christmas Eve 2018. As I read through it, I thought, goodness, this is a post I could read and apply every single day, remember, I write these lessons first for me and then for thee. It is a question I need to ask myself every single day – So, Beth, What Are You Going To Do About This Baby? It is a good reminder to me that because Jesus has come, I now must be-come. May the Everlasting Joy of Christmas be yours today and everyday…

You do know we’re having a baby tomorrow, right?  Had you heard that?  Are we ready for it?  Not Christmas silly, the baby.  There’s lots of preparations that take place before a baby comes, right?  Babies change our lives, completely upside down, right?  Not only a newborn coming into the world, but in a way when the baby arrives, we too are born, reborn.  Old habits, old routines, chucked right out the window.  Right?

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.  She gave birth to her first child, a son.  She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn. 

Luke 2:6-7

So, what are we going to do about this baby?  Anything?  Remember the story of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend?  Lazarus died.  Jesus raised him from the dead.

Many of the people were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.  But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.  Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together to discuss the situation.  “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. 

John 11:45-47

See there, the Pharisees and the leading priests were asking the same thing.  What are we going to do about this baby?

You know, a baby changes everything.  Babies, this Baby, changed the course of the world.  Will this Baby change us?  What will happen if we don’t allow ourselves to be changed, to experience new birth, to be reborn?

So, what are we going to do about this Baby?  You know, the one swaddled at birth and placed in a manger.  The one swaddled at death and placed in a tomb.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and He was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  He created everything there is.  Nothing exists that he didn’t make.  Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.  This light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.  John 1:1

The light that gives light to all mankind left behind the clothes in the manger and the clothes in the tomb.  He was born!  He did die!  He is risen!  Indeed.

So, what are we going to do about this baby?

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.  The stars in the sky look down where He lay.  The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the poor Baby awakes.  But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.  I love thee, Lord Jesus!  Look down from the sky.  And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay.  Close by me forever and love me, I pray.  Bless all the dear children in thy tender care.  And take us to heaven, to live with thee there.

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us.

John 1:14

Today in the world about 14,708 babies will be born each hour.  Now in the early days birth was not quite happening at that rate, but it was happening.  After all,  God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.  He told Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiple.  He told Jacob aka Israel to be fruitful and multiple.  So this is what was supposed to happen, right?  Babies were to be born.  Procreation was on. 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:18

The Word became human by being born of a woman.  Mary.  At first glance it looks so ordinary, doesn’t it?  A woman has a baby.  Happens every day.  But if we really think about it, it is quite fantastic.  We all pretty much know this story.  It’s the Reason for the Season, right?  But do we really understand how extraordinary it is?  His mother found out she was pregnant by an angel not a doctor.  This pregnancy was not unplanned but a planned pregnancy from the beginning of time.  His parents were not married but betrothed.  His mother was a not a woman but a teenaged girl.  His father was not Joseph but the Holy Spirit.  He was born in a manger not a hospital.   There obviously were some extraordinary happenings surrounding the birth of this baby.

Here’s how Sinclair Ferguson describes it: 

Christ came into the womb of a virgin and emerged from it as a new-born infant.  He came to share our humanity from its beginning—an embryo cradled in the body of a teenaged virgin.

What a beautiful vision.  Cradled from womb to manger.  Although important, the most extraordinary part isn’t how He came or the events surrounding the birth, but why He came, that’s the most beautiful vision.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

The ordinary course of life starts with birth.  If we do not see the extraordinary in this ordinary, we will have missed Jesus.

Wednesday Read John 1:1-18.  What does The Word mean?  Write out your understanding of it.

Thursday Read John 1:1-18.  What do these scriptures say about Jesus being fully human and fully God?

Friday Read Genesis 1:1.  Who was there in the beginning?

Read Genesis 1:26.  Who created people?  In whose image were they created?  Hint – look for the pronouns.

Saturday Review your answers to the questions posed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Sunday Spend time in prayer asking God to reveal to you how extraordinary He is.

Monday Read Luke 4:14-22.  What was Jesus sent to do?

Tuesday Spend time in prayer today praising God for sending the hope of the earth to release us from our sins and fears.  Praise God for sending The Word.

Names all the extraordinary happenings in these verses.  List all the things that only God could do.

There’s a phenomenon of nature I have noticed.  When I sit at my desk each morning facing east, I usually sit in the dark for a few minutes before I turn the light on just trying to wake up a little bit and try to center myself on the Lord God.  I open the window, which my desk sits in front of, so that I can hear.  I love the night sounds, we usually sleep with our window open, but I also love the morning sounds, or actually, the lack of day sounds.  Sure my feet sometimes get cold, but I just slip a blanket over my legs so I can feel, smell, and hear the day awaken.  I don’t want to miss that.

Back to the phenomenon…traveling sounds.  We’re planted with the mountain on our west and town to our east.  Driving to town sometimes seems like we live a far piece out, but listening in the early morning sometimes sounds like we’re built beside the interstate.  As I sit here writing, I can hear the interstate plain as day.  Vehicles, trucks traveling north to south, south to north.  My grandma used to say the trucks traveling past their house on Route 11 were “singing.”  That song is not one of my favorites.

The way we hear sound is very curious to me.  Granted, plenty of trees and natural barriers have been removed between the mountain and the interstate, nevertheless, plenty of barriers remain to absorb the sounds of the interstate too – ridges and hills, orchards, trees, leaves, brush.  But still…the interstate sound.  Granted it is sometimes louder than other times, depending on the density of trees and whether or not they have their leaves, depending on the density of the elements of the atmosphere too like smog, fog, rain, snow.

But, there is a certain psychology to sound.  Not only is it physical, it happens through your brain and your ears and for some through the eyes, but it is also psychology, sound happens in our emotions.  For instance, hearing a baby cry triggers happiness and causes us to go awwwww.  That same cry can also cause concern.  That physical sound not only triggers a physical response, but it triggers an emotional response as well.  Sounds have the ability to interact with our emotional hearts and create feelings.  Deep…sorry.

The interstate sounds remind me some of my relationship with God.  Sometimes I can hear Him so clearly moving in my world, singing His love song, His guidance song, His comfort song, His provision song, His salvation song and I react emotionally, with feelings, with my heart.   Like when a baby cries, as the song says, the Baby’s cry is the sound of love come down, He has come, Emmanuel!

At other times, though I may not be able to hear God’s voice, or distinguish God’s voice above the parade of the interstate noise, you know, the vroom songs of life.  My ability to hear God’s voice is dependent almost wholly on me.  Have I removed the barriers that keep me from hearing Him?  Have I cut down all the trees that are muffling the sounds?  Have I placed the barriers that block the chatter of the world?  Have the elements of the atmosphere of the world, pain, fear, anger, anxiety, made it difficult for me to hear His song and made it difficult for me to feel His song in my heart?

You know, in Jesus day, it wouldn’t have been the interstate that made it hard to hear the baby’s cry, it may have been a caravan traveling to hometowns for the government required census,  it may have been Herod’s angry cries, it may have been the sound of Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus fleeing to Africa, the sound of the Pharisees, the sound of Pilate’s verdict, the sounds of betrayal and rejection, the sound of Jesus being nailed to the cross.  Today, even the thoughts of those sounds emit an emotional response for those who love the Lord.

How can we tune in to the Lord’s voice through the din of the world?  How do we distinguish the voice of the Living God from the cacophony of our lives?  What is the key to hearing God in our loud lives, in our noisy worlds?  The Word.  We cannot hope to hear the Lord if we don’t know Him.  Where do we learn to recognize the sound of His voice?  In His Word.  We can live as close to Him as we want to, The Lord does not set up barriers to keep us from knowing Him, from hearing Him.  We do.  He will not tear down the barriers we set up to block His voice.  We must.

I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying,

for he speaks peace to his faithful people.

But let them not return to their foolish ways.

Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,

so our land will be filled with his glory.  Psalm 85:8-9

He came to us, He pursued us – He is the Good News.  How will we respond to the sounds of The Most High, the sound of love come down?

Come on, let’s go to Bethlehem!  Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.  Luke 2:15

One of my centering reads (other than the Bible, of course), is a tiny little book by A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God.  I may have mentioned it before.  If you want help centering, in a genuine, direct, Godly way, this is a must-read.  Although written in the 40s, it doesn’t read at all like that. This is one of those little books that proves the timelessness of the Word of God and its teachings.   This book was written on a train bound from Chicago to Texas.  In one long, bumpy, loud, overnight train ride, the draft was completed.  In his pastoral journey, Tozer was assigned to the Alliance Church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia in 1919, before serving 31 years at the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago and becoming a regular on the Moody Bible Institute’s radio station segment Talks from a Pastor’s Study.

I opened this little book the other day to reground (try).  If you’re like me (I hope I’m not alone), this time of year, this season, sometimes leaves me chasing my tail with all the “stuff” that “needs” to be done.  It is exciting with preparations for Christmas.  The parties to attend, the gifts to purchase, the kids’ concerts, the Church play, the tree lightings, the parades, the family dinners to plan, the decorating, the baking, the wrapping (that starts with beautifully wrapped packages and ends with a ‘just stuff it in a bag’), and the list goes on and on.  If you are the Celebration Director in your family you may find yourself helplessly swirling around until you just flop somewhere.

As I was reading the book, I was reminded:

God formed us for Himself.  The Shorter Catechism…asks the ancient questions what and why and answers them in one short sentence hardly matched in any uninspired work,

“Question:  What is the chief end of man?

Answer:  Man’s chief end is to glorify God forever.”

A.W. Tozer

Our Father, our Creator, our Most High God, made us for Himself!  Roll that around in your mind for a minute.  The God of the Universe, the One who created from scratch, from the dust of the earth, our breath, our bodies, our minds, our spirits, formed us for Himself.  WoW!  That’s a little mind boggling to me – not necessarily the fact that He created me and you, although that’s super WoW too, but the fact that He chose to create me, the fact that he wanted me, even me, doesn’t just boggle my mind, it blows it away.

Tozer goes on to say:

God formed us for his pleasure, and so formed us that we, as well as He, can, in divine communion, enjoy the sweet mysterious mingling of kindred personalities.  He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.

This is the time of year for “sweet mysterious mingling,” isn’t it?  Spend a second or two on that – “sweet mysterious mingling of kindred personalities.”  It doesn’t get any sweeter than a baby, more mysterious than the events surrounding that Baby’s birth in a manger and truths yet unrevealed, more mingling than that Baby living in our hearts, for all eternity, more kindred than God in us, revealed in us, His name is called Immanuel.

We were created for divine communion and sweet mysterious mingling of kindred personalities.  You know, like, I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God…communion with kin, united with family with God as our Father.  He wants to be together with us, He wants to live with us, He wants to live  in us.  He came as a baby in the manger so that we can see Him, so that we can know Him, so that we can be with Him forever.

Just thinking about that should make us want to fall to our knees and bring our worship, bring our glory, to God.  Thinking about how God sent His Son, Jesus, to save us for all eternity, should cause us to work out the “chief end of man,” which is the sole purpose for our very next breath.  Our sole purpose for being on this planet is to enter into the presence of God.  Unlike that Baby in the manger, we were born with a void, a hole, a space, a gap, a yearning, an emptiness so deep in our hearts that only the presence of God can fill it.  Only His sweet mysterious mingling can seep in around the cracks and crevices and bind together the shattered brokenness of our hearts into communion with Him.

During this Season, let each of us be sure to work out the chief end of man in our own lives. In all the busyness, let’s be sure to bring glory to the One whose season we celebrate.

Come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the angels sing; come, adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King.  Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory in the Highest to God!

It’s the time of year when half the world starts putting family customs and traditions into practice. Last weekend we carried on a custom, a tradition, in our family, readying the house for Christmas. Like millions of other Americans, the weekend after Thanksgiving, we carried tub after tub up and down the basement stairs. Here’s the Fall tub, take that down and get the Christmas tub. No, that’s not the right one, please take that back and get the other one, etc.

There are so many customs and traditions that surround Christmas and some of these customs and traditions have been handed down for many years — from family tree cutting outings, topping the tree with grandma’s star or angel, clutching the side of the house to hang lights, to baking certain yummy family recipes — applesauce cake, red velvet cake, chocolate chip cookies. Woohoo! Customs are the habits we establish and those customs become traditions as they are passed down by word, act, or recipe card, and some are deeply embedded in family lore. Customs and traditions govern our actions, our words, our decorations, our plates. They’ve been handed down and handed over, generation after generation after generation, until one day you find yourself in line to fry the oysters on Christmas Eve.

Customs and traditions with family and friends are important. They are interwoven into our lives and become these beautiful tapestries that cover us. I dare say we can go a day without enacting a custom or a tradition in our life (good or bad), even if it’s so subtle we don’t recognize it. It is good to have customs and traditions, they bring us together, they give us a sense of belonging, a sense of comfort, they are full of sweet times, and remember when’s. All of those things make up who we are.

During this Christmas Season, as we put our customs and traditions into place, let’s keep in mind the Reason for the Season, it sounds so cliche, but it’s just truth. For believers, the whole reason we practice our Christmas customs and traditions is grounded in the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

God is not tied to man-made customs and He is under no obligation to fit in with our expectations. Alistair Begg

Begg gives us a gentle, or not so gentle, reminder that God’s ways are not our ways. To me, it’s a gentle reminder that but for the birth of the Messiah, we would not be putting in place all of our customs and traditions of Christmas, those that are man made. God cannot be pigeon-holed into our customs and traditions. We can’t pull out the manger and say to Him, Lord, just sit right there.

Our God is a God of custom, tradition. Our Bibles are replete with those examples. But He also gives us perspective for those customs and traditions — remember — we honor Him with our lips but our hearts are far away from Him? We need to remember that the customs and traditions we put in place are the window-dressing for the Grand Celebration — the Birth of Our Savior — he came once and He’s coming again! As we hang the greens and mail the cards, let’s not get so tangled up, like the lights for our trees, that we forget not only who God is but whose we are. Jesus should be forefront in our minds. All our hustle and bustle, our scurrying around in breathless preparation would be for nothing without Him. May our customs and traditions of the Season include the Reason. Let’s not forget to pass that down, He came to do something that no amount of custom or tradition could ever do – our Savior has come!

If we walk around with a full glass and someone bumps into us unexpectedly, whatever is inside it will come out. The same principle also applies to our character: if we are filled with bitterness, ingratitude, envy, or jealousy, then it won’t take much of a “bump” for what is within us to overflow. Alistair Begg

When I read this earlier this week I was like, oh my goodness! This is something that I absolutely don’t want to forget. Leave it to Alistair Begg to give me a good thwack!!

As I read and re-read this statement, I kept thinking of Thanksgiving I mean the celebrations and interactions (opportunities) we will have on Thanksgiving day and even on the preparation days leading up to Thanksgiving. Then I thought, well it doesn’t end with Thanksgiving, preparations, celebrations, and interactions (opportunities) carry us right through Christmas, actually, right on through life.

Let’s take just a minute though and think of the sheer number of people we will come into contact with just between today and the end of the year. We will be “bumping” into people left and right, quite literally. It could be a bump at the grocery store when diving for the turkey, it could be a bump at our Thanksgiving celebrations while out smarting our cousins for the last piece of pumpkin pie, it could be a bump at the gas station while filling up for the Thanksgiving trip, it could be a bump at your workplace on a hectic day before the Thanksgiving four-day, it could be an all out body-slamming-jolt when Black Friday shopping. That’s a whole lot of “bumping” going on. I’m sure we could come up with hundreds of other bumps (opportunities), if we think about it. And, we should.

I love (not love) how Begg reminds us that our character is like a full glass of water. I also love (not love) how he reminds us to think about what is in our glass. I also love (not love) how he reminds us that what is in our glass, when tapped, bumped, or jolted, is going to splash out. I love (not love) how Begg gently (or not so) reminds us that we need to be careful of what we carry around, what’s in our glass, because a tiny tap could leave us trying to balance our contents and not so gracefully keep them from spilling out, which we usually aren’t successful at. We all know what that looks like. Whoaaaaaa! And once it has spilled…

“A healthy tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a poor tree bear good fruit. Every tree is known by the fruit it bears; you do not pick figs from thorn bushes or gather grapes from bramble bushes. A good person brings good out of the treasure of good things in his heart; a bad person brings bad out of his treasure of bad things. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:43-45

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of…hmmm…soooo…it is critical that we think about the kind of fruit and the resulting juice that’s in our glass (hearts). Remember, what’s in our glass will splash out.

Since you are God’s dear children, you must try to be like him. Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God. Ephesians 5:1-2

During our life-seasons, let’s keep in mind that we are children of the King, we are royalty, and royal children must have royal manners. If we fill our cups (hearts) with that which is good — love, mercy, compassion, thankfulness and humility — all things Jesus — there will be no room for “bitterness, ingratitude, envy or jealousy.” If our cups are full of good and we are controlled by love, when we are jostled or even laid flat-out, that’s what will be split-out. Let’s examine our cups and see what will be splashing out this season.

Tony pointed out to me this week this amazing act of God. Do you see the work of His hand? Gaze at it for a minute and take it in.

What is it you ask? It’s a star making machine! Yep. The Cone Nebula is a “pillar-like cloud of cold, star-forming molecular gas and dust” according to NASA. It’s a star machine in the Heavens — it’s where stars come from! How cool is that?

Not to get into the weeds too far, this image was taken by a (VLT) a very large telescope (yes, that’s the technical name of the equipment – duh), located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The VLT is operated by the European Southern Observatory. They say this Cone Nebula is located fairly close to us, about 2,500 light-years away from earth. A light year is the distance a light travels in one year, nearly six trillion miles. So, six trillion times 2,500, who knows, you do the math. Anyway, they call that “relatively” close to our home towns. What in the world!?!? Actually, it’s out of this world…

Check out the video below from the ESO. It’s wild!

When I watch that I think of the word miracle. What is a miracle? An extraordinary event taken as a sign of the supernatural power of God. An event that requires the supernatural power of God to be accomplished. Each star made, each shining star released at the top of this nebula is a miracle. God of wonders…

As I’m star gazing that video, I find myself humming the song my 4 year old great-nephew Declan was humming this weekend, Million Little Miracles by Maverick City. Every single star produced by that Cone Nebula is a miracle. A gracious act of our Creator God. Hallelujah!

All my life, I’ve been carried by grace
Don’t ask me how ’cause I can’t explain
It’s nothing short of a miracle I’m here

I’ve got some blessings that I don’t deserve
I’ve got some scars, but that’s how you learn
It’s nothing short of a miracle I’m here

I think it over and it doesn’t add up
I know it comes from above

I’ve got miracles on miracles
A million little miracles
Miracles on miracles
Count your miracles
One, two, three, four, I can’t even count ’em all

Just like the star machine, we are miracles on miracles, we’ve got miracles on miracles, and just like the stars in the Heavens, one, two, three, four, we can’t even count ’em all. The miracles we are, the miracles we have, the miracles we see…when we stop to think about it, it is a little hard to wrap our brains around, right?

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

The Apostle Paul knew a little about miracles, didn’t he? He was a miracle. He lived a miracle. He was even given the power from God to perform miracles. But when Paul thought on God’s mysterious plan revealed, the millions upon millions upon millions of little miracles, all he could do was fall to his knees and worship the God of Miracles. Shouldn’t we do the same?