Sunday Is Coming

Good morning,

We are fast approaching the end of this year and the beginning of a new one. I pray all is well with you and may God Bless you in the coming year.

We hear of people making New Year resolutions but seldom do they keep them. So, this year I have a suggestion for a New Year’s resolution that we ought to be able to remember and keep. It is kind of broad & very general, but here it is - let’s promise ourselves & God that we will make a change for the better. One change is seeing others as God sees them.

I was reading this morning and came upon the following it's a little long but so worth the read.

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don


F. Jim Cymbala preaches at a church in the slums of New York. He tells the following story:

It was Easter Sunday and I was so tired at the end of the day that I just went to the edge of the platform, pulled down my tie and sat down and draped my feet over the edge. It was a wonderful service with many people coming forward. The counselors were talking with these people. As I was sitting there I looked up the middle aisle, and there in about the third row was a man who looked about fifty, disheveled, filthy. He looked up at me rather sheepishly, as if saying, “Could I talk to you?” We have homeless people coming in all the time, asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, “What a way to end a Sunday. I’ve had such a good time, preaching and ministering, and here’s a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine.”

He walked up. When he got within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I’d never smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking away, and then I’d talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I couldn’t inhale facing him. I asked him,

“What’s your name?”

“David.”

“How long have you been on the street?”

“Six years.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-two.”

He looked fifty- hair matted; front teeth missing; wino; eyes slightly glazed.

“Where did you sleep last night, David?”

“Abandoned truck.”

I keep in my back pocket a money clip that also holds some credit cards. I fumbled to pick one out thinking; I’ll give him some money. I won’t even get a volunteer. They are all busy talking with others. Usually we don’t give money to people. We take them to get something to eat. I took the money out. David pushed his finger in front of me. He said,

“I don’t want your money. I want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die on the street.”

I completely forgot about David, and I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. See how easy it is? I could make the excuse I was tired. There is no excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not feeling what God feels. But oh, did that change! David just stood there. He didn’t know what was happening. I pleaded with God,

“God, forgive me! Forgive me! Please forgive me. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I’m so sorry. Here I am with my message and my points, and You send somebody and I am not ready for it. Oh, God!”

Something came over me. Suddenly I started to weep deeper, and David began to weep. He fell against my chest as I was sitting there. He fell against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms around him, and there we wept on each other. The smell of His person became a beautiful aroma.

Here is what I thought the Lord made real to me: If you don’t love this smell, I can’t use you, because this is why I called you where you are. This is what you are about. You are about this smell.

Christ changed David’s life. He started memorizing portions of Scripture that were incredible. We got him a place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance, and we got his teeth fixed. He was a handsome man when he came out of the hospital. They detoxed him in 6 days. He spent that Thanksgiving at my house. He also spent Christmas at my house. When we were exchanging presents, he pulled out a little thing and he said,

“This is for you.”

It was a little white hanky. It was the only thing he could afford.

A year later David got up and talked about his conversion to Christ. The minute he took the mic and began to speak, I said,

“The man is a preacher.”

This past Easter we ordained David. He is an associate minister of a church over in New Jersey. And I was so close to saying,

“Here, take this; I’m a busy preacher.”

We can get so full of ourselves.

Sunday's Coming

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21


Good morning,

LaVon and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas! We pray you are warm and healthy and want to thank you for your prayers, calls and gifts. May God bless you richly.

Each December we celebrate Christmas for the birth of Jesus. Then, in the spring, we celebrate Easter for Jesus’ death and resurrection. But really, these two parts of the story of Jesus’ life cannot be separated. Christmas would lose its meaning without remembering what Jesus did during His life.

Jesus lived to reveal God to us. He was crucified and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins, to invite us into relationship with God, and to offer us eternal life.

Hail! the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King"
(from Hark! "The Herald Angels Sing")

So what is Christmas, at its worst? It is a crass, commercial, empty, exhausting, and very expensive event that drags on for months at a time. And what is Christmas, at its best? It is a glimpse of something that is coming: the beauty . . . the wonderful music . . . the adoring angels . . . the love . . . the warmth . . . the promise . . . the hope. Because when you get down to it, Christmas is a promise. It is a promise of things to come.

We celebrate Christmas not only for Jesus’ birth, but also for His life, death and resurrection. Through Him, we have a real reason to celebrate. We have our sins forgiven!

Merry Christmas!

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.

Don

Sunday's Coming

Good morning,

I pray all is well with you yoday. I want to thank you for your prayers this past week. I would not have been able to preach Sunday if not for your prayers. I am still having problems, but am getting a little better each day. Thanks, again, for your continued prayers.

In my reading this morning, this was a devotional I read and I would like to share it with you.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

In Dr. Seuss’ classic Christmas tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch suffers from having a small heart. The source of his heart problem is his lack of understanding the meaning of Christmas. As the story goes, the Grinch tries to put a stop to Christmas, but in the end, he comes to understand what Christmas is all about and his heart grows three sizes! This heart change makes a big difference in his life.

I’m not sure what Dr. Seuss’ intentions were when he wrote the story back in 1957, but it certainly comes across as a Christian parable to me that parallels the change that takes place in a person’s life when he or she comes to understand the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus, God’s Son, who was born to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). When the light of the Good News of Jesus dawns upon the heart of a person, God replaces the old heart of stone, with a new, fleshy heart – and a new person emerges. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“Welcome Christmas – While we stand – Heart to heart – And hand in hand.”

It might just make all the difference in the world.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in;
Be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!
(from O Little Town of Bethlehem)

We celebrate Christmas because of the power Jesus brought to change our hearts.

May you have a Merry Christmas!
Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don

Sunday Is Coming

Good morning,

I pray you are safe and warm. It is 36* as I write this, but is to warm to the 60's.

Last week at Men's Bible Study, we came together and anointed with oil and prayed for one of our men that was diagnosed with something the doctors could do nothing for. I read the text below and believe that God is going to do a powerful work.

James, the brother of Jesus, tells us, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). When we face hard times, prayer can sustain us like nothing else—both the prayers of others and the continual prayers we offer for our own situation.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to pray powerfully is to pray the words of Scripture. Just as Jesus responded to temptation with Scripture, so we can experience spiritual victory with the Word of God.

Pray God’s promises and ask for their fulfillment in your life. Pray that those close to you would follow God’s path for them. Pray for His Kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. There can be no better words of comfort, strength, healing, love, and hope than the very words and thoughts of God as revealed in His Word.

Lord thank You for Your Word, which is powerful. I pray that my prayer life would become more powerful and effective. May my prayers move hearts and mountains. Amen.

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.
Don

Sunday is Coming

And Mary gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.

Luke 2:7

I love this story about a second grade boy named Wally. I can’t remember where I got it, but I remember it being told to me that this actually happened in a small town in the Midwest.

Wally was 9 and in second grade. He should have been in 4th grade. Wally wanted to be a shepherd or an angel in the Christmas play but Miss Lumbard assigned him the “important role” of the innkeeper. I think it was because of his size and it had very few lines.

And so it happened that the usual large audience gathered for the town’s yearly extravaganza of beards, crowns, halos and a whole stage full of squeaky voices. No one on stage or off was more caught up in the magic of the night than Wally. They said later that he stood in the wings and watched the performance with such fascination that from time to time Miss Lumbard had to make sure he didn’t wonder onstage before his cue.

Then the time came when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the Inn. Joseph knocked on the door. Wally the innkeeper was there waiting.

“What do you want?” demanded Wally, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.

“We seek lodging.”

“Seek it elsewhere.” Wally looked straight ahead. “The inn is filled.”

“Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and are very weary.”

“There is no room in this inn for you.” Wally looked properly stern.

“Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired.”

Now for the first time the Innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary. With that, there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment.

“No! Be gone!” the prompter whispered from the wings.

“No!” Wally repeated automatically. “Be gone!”

Joseph placed his arm around Mary and Mary laid her head upon her husband’s shoulder and the two of them started to move away. The Innkeeper did not return inside his inn, however. Wally stood in the doorway, watching the forlorn couple. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes filling unmistakably with tears. And suddenly this Christmas pageant became different from all others.

“Don’t go Joseph,” Wally called out. “Bring Mary back.” And Wally’s face grew into a bright smile. “You can have my room.”

This season let’s make room for the Reason we celebrate Christmas.

Have a great day, love you, pass it on.

Don


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