The Last Part of the Christmas Story

The Last Part of the Christmas Story

Opening Questions

Would you like to live in a place where you have lived in the past?  Where, why or why not?

As you look over your life can you see where God has uniquely lead you to one place or another?  What were the circumstances that you can see now but looked very different in that moment?

What is the part of the Christmas story that you think gets the least amount of attention?

Can you tell about a time when a small decision had an extremely large impact later on?

Bible reading and study:   Have someone read Matthew 2:

Looking carefully at verses 19-23 discuss the following questions.

How specific was the angel's instructions regarding where Joseph was to take his family?

What might have been some of the places to which Joseph could have taken Mary and Jesus?

Why did Joseph specifically avoid returning to Bethlehem or Judea? 

What do you know about Archelaus?  

You can learn more here: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1729-archelaus

What would have been the advantages and disadvantages of settling in Nazareth?

(Don’t forget the advantage of Nazareth being somewhat off the beaten path.  Why might this be important?)

Life Applications

Many times we have a hard time seeing what God is doing in our lives in the moment.  But we can often see His divine care, protection, and guidance in past events in our lives. 

When can you point to God’s providential or specific direction that has helped you follow Him or serve Him more faithfully?  Having freedom is a huge responsibility. What does this mean for the seemingly small decisions we make every day? 

Life is not made up of unrelated events but rather a string of events.  Each moment is effected by the ones before and each is impacting the ones to follow.  That being said, any moment or decision, no matter how seemingly small, has the potential to shape the whole of our life for good or bad. 

 

What are some of the things we can do to make sure each decision draws us closer to God in the days and years to come?

Hugh Ross

Hugh Ross is a Christian astrophysicist who bravely and faithfully shares his faith with non-believers. Some time ago he was invited to present the Christian faith at a convention of Skeptics, read atheist. This was a hostile and aggressive gathering of about 700 committed, hard-core opponents of the Christian faith. 

 

During the encounter he noted that the atheists were only antagonistic toward the God of the Bible, the Christian God. They were indifferent to all other gods. There was not so much as a complaint about the gods. Mr Ross commented on the skeptics' hatred for the Christian God. 

 

The response of the skeptic/atheist was insightful, worrying, and cause for alarm. They said in effect, “We don’t hate the Christian God. We hate His followers.”  They related stories of how they had been hurt by people who claim to be Christians. 

 

This reminds me of the words of Brennan Manning; The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

 

True, some people do not believe because they have never heard. We need to lovingly share the good news with these people. 

 

Some don’t believe it because they have honest doubts that have never been answered. This is, I think, a very small tribe. We need to lovingly hear their hearts, questions, and doubts. And in gentleness and thoughtfulness answer those questions. 

 

There are some former believers who, having fallen into sin, have walked away from the faith because, as Paul said of Demas, ‘having loved the present world’. We must with love and grace honestly challenge them about sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come. 

 

There is also a large community of nonbelievers who have been hurt by mean spirited “Christians”. In such cases, we need to first share that bad believers do not represent Christ. Second, we need to live with such love and grace that in us they might see Christ. 

 

My heart breaks because I can put faces to a couple of these categories. I have watched as a good friend and honest man became very indifferent to the faith because of stupid church politics. I recall a young lady who I watched the evil of a church nearly wreck her faith. She still believes, but she is reluctant about faith. 

 

In my opinion, the wrath of God for a Missalina, Hitler, or Charles Manson will not be so intense as that for a so-called Christian who for whatever selfish reasons wrecks the budding faith of innocent believers. 

Low Budget and Funny

Low Budget and Funny I Hope

 

I am sending you a link to our low budget but hopefully funny commercial.  I hope that it is much funnier than it is low budget but we shall see.

 

Our church would be easy to miss.  Our building is sort of out of the way and we are small in numbers.  What we are wanting to do is empower our people to engage and invite their connections to come to know Christ.  To this end I have made a few simple low budget commercials that we will post on YouTube.  Our people will be asked to post them on their social media platforms asking their friends to post them also. I will also ask our people to engage and invite those who respond positively to explore the claims of Christ with us.

 

The whole point of this exercise is to try to help our people with the first, and often most difficult, step of having spiritual conversations.  If a funny commercial about fried chicken can help us do that then the chicken will not have died in vain.

 

Enjoy

 

An early start on Thanksgiving

(I've not been posting much lately. There is a good reason, and it is good news, but I will save that for another time. For now let me say I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.)

Well, it seems that the holidays are upon us. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, also known as national day of gluttony, but we won't talk about that. Have you ever noticed that preachers never preach on gluttony the Sunday before Thanksgiving? That being the case, I'm not going to blog about gluttony, at least not this close to Thanksgiving.

However, what I will do is talk about one of the things for which I am especially thankful. I've been in the ministry for a long time. I've had my share of ups and downs in churches. I've had moments of absolute delight and joy. And I have had those moments that felt like I was Julius Caesar in the Senate. At this moment, I have to say I am genuinely thankful that, by God's grace, I serve the congregation I serve.

It struck me this afternoon while I was catching up on Facebook messages and one of the families that had recently been transferred by the Army out of our community gave a recommendation to someone moving into the community, via Facebook, that they needed to check out our congregation. I'm thankful that I serve the kind of congregation that is highly endorsed by its alumni.

This afternoon I went by to see a man who visited our church a few times and had taken a pretty bad fall recently. He wasn't home so I didn't get a chance to visit with him. One of the things I know is that the people from our church checked on him, visited him when he was in the hospital, ran errands for him and are generally helpful. It is a warm feeling in the heart of a pastor when you know that the people in your congregation are doing pastoral care simply because they love others.

Earlier today, I visited a man who is homebound and has a number of health issues that have been lingering for a very long time. I hope that he's getting better and has turned the corner, but I'm not qualified to make that assessment. However, I know that every week or so one of the men of our church goes by to see this fellow, sits, visits, and helps him where he needs help. This man will never be a rockstar, famous personality, or social media influencer. The man from our church goes by and encourages him because Jesus loves this homebound man and so does the fellow who visits him. 

A lady in the church asked if she could have a favor from the congregation. She wanted to host Thanksgiving dinner for extended family and for anyone in the community, but didn't have a place to go on Thanksgiving. She wanted to know if she could use our church building for this occasion. This was not some systematic, strategic, outreach ministry attempt. This was the organic natural expression of love and service of a lady in our congregation for the community and for people who might not have a place to be on Thanksgiving. I had nothing to do with the organization of this. I didn't have to ask or beg people to help. It just happened. All I have to do is show up in the middle of the afternoon and have a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.

Recently, I received from my congregation a pastor appreciation gift bag. The kind notes, sweet and generous gifts moved my heart deeply. But not quite as deeply as the feeling I get when I watch this congregation being the people of God.

Now, don't get the mistaken idea that this is a perfect congregation. We are far from a perfect congregation because we are made up of imperfect people. But we are a group of people that genuinely love the Lord, genuinely love others and express that love in real, tangible ways. And for that I am truly thankful. 

What is in a meal?

What is in a meal is more than just the dishes offered or the ingredients.  It is more than gluten, vegan or low carbs.  What is really important about a meal is the interaction.   I am writing this during the lunch rush at a popular deli. Almost every table has a few people engaged in conversation.  One table has a bunch of foreign nationals who are here attending school.  It is fun to see them chatting in their mother tongue.  It must feel great to have a break from immersion in a foriegn language and hear and speak your home language. At another table a handsome young man and a pretty young lady are not flirting, but the male displays his plumage while the female is pretending not to notice or be impressed.  I can’t really tell if she is impressed or not, neither can the male and I’m not sure if she knows.  There is another table nearby where two tech sorts are pouring over the screen of a laptop while animatedly discussing some point that would be lost on everyone except other tech sorts.  There is a large table in the corner where a group of young soldiers laugh, talk and render to each other good natured harassment.  A wife has just joined her husband, they are young, in love and thrilled with the moment away from work, kids, and other concerns.  They are having a sort of mini-vacation in the middle of the week. There is the young professional that just caught herself sort of dancing from the waist up to the catchy tune on the radio, to the amusement of her tablemates.  

What do they all have in common?  In one way or another and to different degrees, they are all building memories.  Who knows the afterword of the stories.  Maybe the flirting couple will get married and some day confess, “Remember the lunch at….”  The lonely foreign nationals may return home and always remember the oasis of home they shared over a meal.  The tech guys may build the next great O.S.  

Every meal is more than the food.  It is the connection that we make with each other.  It is the connection of laughter and tears, of stories and jokes, it is the holding of babies not your own, and getting a break from your kids.  The power of a shared meal is vital to the life and well-being of a family, a community, or a church.

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to build those kinds of relationships and bonds at church.  Every 5th Sunday of the month is our time to share a meal and in the process share life.  We are far from the ideal church, but every shared meal moves us a little closer in that direction.  Please join us Sunday, bring a dish to share and most of all, bring a heart to open to others and be filled with the grace of God’s people. 

Of big planes and little things

Charles Vernon Boys wanted to build a better scale.  To do that he needed to build a better balance arm.   Boys’ work for a better scale has been overshadowed by his other invention.  Boys believed that glass would make a better balance arm that metals.  Since glass is stronger than steel of the same size, a very fine rod of glass might be the balance arm Boys was looking for.  He developed the tool to make this ultra thin rod.  He created a special crossbow that would fire a glass rod, on end of which was moltan.  The result was a thread of glass.  On one occasion he was able to produce a thread 90 feet long.

Fast forward about 100 years and the Airbus A380 takes to the sky thanks in part to Boys’ discovery.  Rather than a typical aluminum hull, the largest passenger aircraft in the world has a hull composed, in part, of the material Boys discovered and developed.  You used it last night and this past summer and, without knowing it, for most of your life.  But we don’t call it glass rods or glass threads, we know it as fiberglass.  

It is a long way from a single thread of glass to the world wide 12.9 billion pounds produced In 2021.  But that is the point; it had to start somewhere.  There are big results from tiny or what seems to be inconsequential actions.  WE often think we have to do big things and great things and very noticeable things if we are going to make any impact.  That may be more a product of propaganda than of the historic record.  A great many world-shaking discoveries and accomplishments did not begin as a big deal.  

What I am suggesting is that we all should go and do little things, lots of little things.  Do them with grace, love and kindness because you never know what the result might be.  WE have been told to plan and act strategically.  We are to make a point of maximizing our impact through leveraged relationships and opportunities.  I once believed that, but I am having my doubts.  What I do not doubt is that caring relationships are built with small moments, things, words, and deeds.  And it is relationships that really make the greatest impact.  

Sin and a leaking toilet

As many of you know we bought a fixer upper home a little less than two years ago.  It is a wonderful home with, as they say in the business, good bones. However, that was a lot of fixing up to do.  Most of it was a matter of redecoration, but some things were a little more involved.

One of these was a toilet that would rock a little bit.  Now, I love a rocking chair as much as the next guy, but there are times I do not want my seat to rock.  The rocking was progressing and becoming more pronounced.  This manifestation convinced me that I needed to be proactive.  

As I began the process, I discovered that this symptom represented much deeper and more involved problems.  The rocking toilet was an outward manifestation of deeper problems.  The good news is the problem has been resolved.  However, it was not just a matter of wedging a penny under the edge of our porcelain bowl.  I will spare you the details, but I will say it was a job that required a lot of hard work.

As I worked on the project I began to think of it as a parable.  In our lives, and those we know, we often see the manifestation or the outward expression of more deep-seated issues.  We may see aggressive behavior without considering what is the root cause.  The passing sexual innuendo is noted without a thought of what is beneath.  The passion for comfort food is not associated with anything other than the taste we enjoy.

But what is on the surface often reflects something deeper within.  When we start looking deeper we find things we do not like or want to admit.  We realize that it is not just a short fuse, but a sinful, angry spirit or attitude that is the pattern for life.  The meaningless joke is not so meaningless because in our heart we really do believe we are better than others.  

Once we begin to pull back the facade we find there is a lot of hard work to be done to correct the problem.  We peel back one error and discover behind it something else and oftentimes something worse.  Dealing with the sin in our lives is not easy.  God will forgive us, but He respects us too much to violate our freewill and makes us want to be whole and righteous.  That partnership with God in our moving forward requires effort on our part. Sometimes it is hard work.

There is the option of ignoring the little issues of disobedience in our lives that may be indicators of deeper issues.  But, like a rocking toilet, it will only get worse and will one day collapse.  The difference is that having your toilet fall through the floor is a temporary disaster.   Falling through the practice of sin is more painful and can be eternally regretted.