December 2011

30 Dec

Posted at 19:11h in Fridays Are For Family
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This is the time of year when many people will sit down and write out a list of New Year's resolutions. Unlike some, I'm not opposed to these sorts of resolutions. In fact, I believe that there are areas of our lives as individuals and families in which it's perfectly fine to make resolutions. However, when it comes to our walk with the Lord I believe that a better word would be "commitment." Let me explain. As I understand it, a resolution has more to do with personal resolve. It is a promise that I make to myself. "I resolve to lose ten pounds. I resolve to be more organized. I resolve to do this or that." I have a personal goal and I determine in my mind that I will do certain things in order to accomplish that goal. I don't see anything wrong or ungodly with making these sorts of resolutions. In fact, I have made a few of these myself for 2012.

28 Dec

Posted at 13:12h in Devotionals
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"Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away." 1 Corinthians 13:8  As we approach the beginning of a new year many preachers, teachers and hometown philosophers will no doubt say that this should remind us that all earthly things are perishing and passing away. I see it differently. To me the passing of the old and the beginning of the new are actually reminders of those things which are not perishing, that are not passing away. In fact, what is so wonderful about the passing years is not what they take away, but rather what they leave behind.

26 Dec

Posted at 13:29h in Devotionals
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"And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." John 20:22  What had Jesus said? The Savior's statement is found in the previous verse. "Peace to you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you." It wasn't until after Jesus made this statement that He breathed on them. You see, before He gave them the great gift of the Spirit's peace Jesus had to tell them exactly what kind of peace they could expect. If not, they would likely have been disappointed. He had to explain to them that His peace is what the world considers to be the opposite of peace - sacrificial surrender, "As the Father has sent me, I also send you."

16 Dec

Posted at 12:54h in Fridays Are For Family
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Christmas is just over a week away. I don't know about you, but for me this time of year always brings back so many great childhood memories. I remember Christmas eve services and musicals at church. I remember trips across Tennessee in a stationwagon to spend Christmas at my grandparents' house. I remember Christmas dinner with cousins I didn't get to see at any other time of the year. I remember hunting with my father and a snowy scene with a little white house in the curve of a dirt road with a huge fir tree next to it decorated to look like a Christmas tree. I remember unwrapping a present, expecting to get some toy I really, really wanted and pulling out a pack of underwear or socks. (The toy was usually unwrapped next.) There were Christmas songs on the stereo and boiled custard in the refrigerator and the smell of pies and cakes in the air - so many wonderful memories. No wonder they call this "the most wonderful time of the year."

14 Dec

Posted at 13:36h in Devotionals
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"by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh..." Hebrews 10:20 Why is His way a "new" way? Because it is a "living way." You see, until the night of His coming, man's religion was nothing more than a dying way.  Until then religion was only something that was helpful when a human soul had to cross the valley of death's shadow. They never thought of worship as being helpful to human souls in the supporting of the shadows of this life. But on that starry night in the little town of Bethlehem, when Jesus came into the world, He constructed and consecrated a brand new road to God. His coming said that I no longer had to wait until the last hour of my life in order to find eternity. In fact, because of His coming I can find, and enjoy, eternal life now. His birth - and even His name, "Immanuel" - tells me that God's presence can be enjoyed without dying, that the greatest of all deaths is in reality the life of love, and that the most holy and acceptable service a man can render is in presenting his body as a living sacrifice to God.