Second Advent

   As Pastor Fred continued our Advent series with starting with the reading of Mark 13:23-37. The main point of the message is the shifting our focus from the first Advent, which waiting for the promised Messiah to the second Advent, which is the return of Jesus as King. This where God will make everything complete and His judgement will be made final. One of the things that I found interesting is that there are 300 references to Christ return in the New Testament alone. Since this is the case, how shall we live in the light of this news. 

   I think the first thing we need to realize is that this world isn’t our home. I remember growing up there was a Christian comedy show that played on Sunday nights on a Christian radio stations across the country and the theme song was This World is not my Home. The theme of the song was that we are just passing through this world and our final destination is heaven. In essence, we aren’t to get to comfortable because there is something greater than what this world has to offer. I will give these two warnings. The first one is that we are not so heavenly focused that we are no earthly good. The second warning is that we can not be so earthly focused that we will miss heaven. It is striking that balance of knowing what are destination is and working towards it, but is also being in tune to the worlds needs and meeting them. So here is my question, how do we strike that balance?

   The second thing we need to realize is this idea of “the signs of the times.” What I mean by this is that we know everything has a season and we can sense or see the changes coming. Whether it is the changing of the leaves, the days getting longer or shorter and a change in temperature. When this happens we often go into a mode of preparing for the upcoming season. Whether it is making sure we have the right equipment and toys out and working along with putting the previous seasons toys and tools away. So, here is my question, how are we preparing for the return of Christ? What are the things we need to put away for the season or just get rid of? How does one prepare for the return of Christ? Besides making Him the Lord of our lives, how about putting on the full armor of God found in Ephesians 6 or the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5.

  The third thing we need to realize is the idea that if Jesus didn’t know the time or day of the return, we won’t either. I think this is a good idea because if we did know, we would procrastinate on what God has called to do. A few years back, there was a jeweler in Superior who felt led to sell off his inventory because he thought the return of Jesus was soon and he wanted to get things in order. He didn’t give any bold predictions of day or year when he thought Jesus was returning, but he wanted to be ready and he also wanted to shift his focus on building Gods Kingdom. Christ will return and making bold predictions of day or year does more harm than good. I think it’s a misuse of our time and Scripture when we try to iron down a date. Our calling is to be prepared for Christ return

  I will leave with this. We are called to be good caretakers of what God has given and blessed us with and one day when He returns, we are going to be judged and held accountable for how we used the things that God left us in charge of. So how are you being responsible and developing Gods gifts in your life? Is God going to find you faithful when He returns?

The Main Thing

 

    It was nice to have Pastor Hollis back preaching and his passage was from Ephesians 3. The two major themes that got preached on is that God loves us and it’s something that we can not comprehend completely. In Romans, the Apostle Paul tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The Bible shares not only how God interacts with and loves His creation like providing manna in the wilderness, to disciplining King David when he had his affair.  Yes God is all powerful, eternal and holy, but at the core of His nature is love. As John wrote in his epistle, God is love, and it is the very reason why He does things and who He is. 

   The second main theme is, what is our response to Gods love? Do we love Him back and are obedient to His voice? God isn’t going to make us robots and program us to be obedient or loving, it is a choice we have to make. We all have someone that we care about and love deeply and we do things to help foster that relationship. Whether it’s buying a cup of coffee for them when you get together, or doing a chore they despise. A good relationship has rules, but it’s not so it can be a check list. But it’s to help create healthy boundaries and to help foster growth in the relationship. 

  The church is entering a 21 day fast and prayer focus and there is no better way to start off the new year. Fasting and prayer can each have multiple blogs a piece, but I will boil it down to this. Prayer and fasting is like hitting the reset button. We find out what is important and it helps brings things into focus. It is not so much about giving something up, but it is obtaining something better, like a better relationship with God and or others. Or it’s about getting rid of things that hold us back and may even cause some physical, emotional or spiritual distress. It is finding out what the main thing is and removing the things that get in the way and hinder our relationship with God. C.S. Lewis said this about prayer but it could word for fasting also. He said that he didn’t pray to change God, but so that God could change him. So what are those things that God is calling you to give up or fast so you can have a more vibrant and growing relationship with God and others? I will leave with this analogy, prayer and fasting is like refiners fire, where God takes away all the impurities so we can become more like Him and have a growing relationship with Him. It also allows us to know what the main thing is and do it which is loving God with everything we have and our neighbors as ourselves. 

Questions to ponder 

  What are those things that limit our relationship with God?

  Are we willing to seek God and to trust Him?

Christmas Courage

   The story of the German and American soldiers during WWI  of when they laid their guns down to sing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve has become quite famous.  I found a similar story that took place in WW2 and I think it’s just as cool. I love the lady in the story who showed great hospitality along with grace, courage and a touch of firmness that allowed the two groups to be fed, get some rest and maybe even gaining a new perspective 

Be the Light

  Pastor Fred took this week of Advent and preached out of John 1 and I think it’s the first time I heard this passage preached apart of the Christmas story. It probably doesn’t get preached as a Christmas story because it doesn’t have animals, angels, shepherds, or Mary and Joseph. I had this realization that this passage is like the rug that ties the room together. It wraps up the birth narrative by stating that Jesus wasn’t some plan B or that He randomly showed up one day in Bethlehem as a baby. Jesus is not only the Son of God, but He is eternal and the second member of the Trinity who participated in the creation of the world. Here are some thoughts that I took away from this weekend. 

   The first one is that our sin has deeper consequences than we realize. In John 1:5, we are told that Jesus (or the light) came into the world but the world did not recognize Him. We didn’t recognize Him because of our sin and open rebellion. Throughout this series, there has been the theme of missing Jesus. Are we missing Jesus because we have different expectations of what He should do or look like, or is it because we are so centered on doing our own thing that we miss Him. In essence we are consumed by are sin or darkness and that’s is the only thing we see or do. So what are those areas in our lives that we need to find Jesus in and let His light take out our sin and darkness?

   My second thought is that the Gospel of John tells is that we are needing to be born again. We can not get into heaven unless we are. This is found in John 3 with the story of Nicodemus. I find it interesting that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Whether it is a representative of his own sin or that he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus because of his position, I find interesting. Being born again means we don’t have to believe the lie that our culture tells us that we are born a particular way and we might as well lean into it and embrace it. Jesus tells us that we are to put away those things and to be born of the Spirit and to cloth ourselves with righteousness and not selfish desires or sin. When we do this we become a witness like Johnny the Baptist preaching the message of repentance to a world that is in the dark, rebellious and clueless. So what does it mean to be a witness and what does it mean to be born again?

  My third and final thought is that the Son of God became man and dwelt among His creation. I don’t know of ant other deity that would become like their creation to show them how to live. Jesus not only came to pay the price for our sin, but to show us who God the Father really is and who we are meant to be. He also displayed humility and submission to the will of the Father by doing this. In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul shares the famous early church hymn of how Jesus humbled Himself and came to earth so He could be a witness to the Fathers love and was even obedient to go and die a brutal death on the cross only to be raised three days later. So how are we supposed to be humble and obedient to Gods calling, even when it is difficult?

   I love me a good sermon series and this series on Advent has been a home run in my book. I loved how all three pastors got to preach a different part of the Advent story and how they all connected. So if you are willing, leave a thought or what impacted you the most in the comment section whether here on the blog or on the churches facebook page, I encourage you to do so. Let’s go be the light in a very dark world 

Alienated

 

This week Pastor Ben preached on Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus and the witness of John the Baptist while in the womb (chapters 1-2). He also covered the main characters in the story. Mary/Joseph, Zachariah/Elizabeth and the shepherds. There are many things that are amazing with this story. Whether is is the Son of God who helped create all things taking on human form to a teen that was a virgin becoming pregnant with the Son of God. Here are some observations that I walked away with. 

  The first one is that God used a bunch of nobodies from the back woods to fulfill His promise of a Messiah. In essence, God took a bunch of outcast to display His glory and to shake the world. Here is the thing, we all want to do something great or to be famous. Whether it’s taking the game winning shot to finding a cure for a dangerous disease. There are even people who want to be YouTube famous and it is usually them either doing something stupid. All that being said, are we being responsible with what God has given us and the situation that He puts us in? If not, why is God going to give us more responsibility when we can’t handle what we are given. The major players in this story were faithful in what they did and worked diligently with the task and talents that God has given them. 

  The shepherds were outcast because of any number of reasons. To put it in modern terms, shepherds would be the people who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, a long criminal record and the only jobs they could get are either the dangerous ones, or the ones no one else wanted to do. So why did God open up the sky and have the angels proclaim the birth of Christ to a bunch of stinky shepherds that no one really cared about? Is because the religious people thought that the coming Messiah would come in to overthrow the Romans and set up the nation of Israel. Instead, God chose to reveal Himself and His plan to a bunch of shepherds because they would check out what they were told. Is our faith like the shepherds and we go out to seek what God has promised and then bow down in worship? Or is our faith like the religious leaders and write it off? When God reveals His promise to Zechariah, he doubted God.  So when God reveals His promise to us, does our faith becomes snark and we laugh at or questions the promise? God still came through with His promise and Zechariah was mute until John was born because of his unbelief 

  To wrap it up, we are all outcast because of our sin. Romans 3:23 that we are all sinners and an outcast. We are separated from God. The only way we can stop being an outcast is accepting Gods free grace and to repent of or sins and to follow God. It doesn’t matter what we have or who we know, because at the end it is how we respond to Gods grace.  I will close with mentioning my favorite Christmas song, Hark the Angels Sing by Charles Wesley. There are three lines in the song that I appreciate and they are

          Born that man no more may die;

           Born to raise the sons of earth,

            Born to give them second birth    

  

When this happens, this means we are valued, loved and no longer an outcast but a part of Gods family.  God loves us so much that He sent His own Son to die for us so that we can be born again and have new life. We become a part of Gods family. When the angels appeared, I often wondered if they were to sing a second verse, they were to sing the message of a new birth. Here are some questions to ponder:

   Are we willing to put in the work on the talents and situations that God has placed us in?

 What do we do when you feel alienated? 

  When presented with great news, do we go out and share it?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead 

Obedience

     

  This week Pastor Haven continued with the Advent story by preaching out of the first two chapters out of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew gives us the account of Jesus birth and detailing Josephs family tree along with the visit from the Magi, King Herod’s response to Jesus birth and the trip to Egypt. Most importantly, Matthew was showing the unbelieving Jews that Jesus was actually the promised Messiah and not some crazed lunatic. Here are some of my observations from the passage. 

  My first observation is how many of us have actually seen King Herod in the nativity sets that come out this time of year. They have all the other important people except for King Herod. I mentioned this observation once to my mom and her response was that it’s because “he’s crazy.” I’m not going to argue that point, but I’m also guessing why he is missing from the nativity set is the we see a little to much of ourselves in him. Just as Herod lied to the Magi about wanting to meet Jesus, he saw Jesus as a threat to his personal safety and ego. What do we do when we feel threatened or our ego gets bruised? Do we go on the offensive and burn every relationship and good thing to the ground? Or do we run, hide and shut down? The lesson from Herod is that there can only be one king and we are lousy kings when we put ourselves on that pedestal. 

  My second observation is that the Pharisees were busy looking for the Messiah but they missed Him. How often do we keep looking for our misplaced car keys and they are often sitting in plain sight and we keep overlooking them. The Pharisees were that way with Jesus, because He was right there and they didn’t see Him. The Pharisees also had a different idea of what the Messiah was going to look like. They wanted someone to come in, overthrow the Romans and set up Gods kingdom here on earth. Instead, the Messiah came as a baby, grew up, spent three years doing ministry only to be crucified for our sins. With the resurrection, that means Jesus is coming back to not only make things right, but to make all things new

  My third observation is that God often shows up at the most inopportune times for us. Mary was an unmarried teen who was pregnant with the promised Messiah and it was God who got her pregnant. Also, going to Bethlehem eight months pregnant on a donkey is no trip. Joseph was going to be a dad to a kid that wasn’t his, which is never easy. He also plans for him and Marry and he was working on when all this happened. So here are two things to ponder. The first one is when God does show up and changes our plans, do we revolt and say no or do we learn to trust Him and walk in obedience to His will? The second observation is that Joseph had every right under Jewish law to at least divorce Mary, if not stone her publicly. So here is my question, if something is permissible by culture, should we do it?  Are we more concerned with doing what is right by Gods standards or by people standards? Joseph choose to do what was right instead of doing what is acceptable.  Are we willing to do the same as Joseph or do we look to take the easy way out?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

God Became Man

 

  Pastor Fred started off the Advent Season and the birth of Christ in Isaiah 9. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the promised Messiah, the Prophet Isaiah foretold of the coming Messiah and that all governments will be on His shoulders and that He would be given names like Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father and the greatness of His government will know no end. It will all also be filled with pace and justice and the coming Messiah will reign on David’s throne forever. 

  The season of Advent is really a time of waiting and expecting. Just as parents wait for the birth of their child, the nation of Israel was waiting on the promised Messiah. They were tired of being subjects to kings and foreign powers where they had no rights. Sure they were allowed to worship, but their worship often included rules that God never gave and they also may have had other religions of the day infiltrate their worship. At least they had to contend with people who thought, ate and worshiped differently than they did. It got to the point we’re different Jewish sects were formed to overthrow the current foreign regime so Gods Kingdom could be set up. In essence, Advent is about waiting for the coming of the Messiah in a fallen and broken world. In the twenty first century, we are not waiting for the messiah to be born, but to return as king. How are you preparing for the return of the promised Messiah who is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff? 

   According to John 1:14, Jesus became man and dwelt among us. What does that mean. The first one is that Jesus is all man and still all God. To my knowledge, there are no other world religions that have their gods take on human form while still maintaining their deity. Jesus came so He could not only provide the ultimate sacrifice, but to also reveal God the Father to us. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus claims that He and the Father are one and if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. I encourage you to read Philippians 2 this week and ponder what it means for Jesus being equal with God, put on flesh and to serve His creation. 

   The next aspect is that even though Jesus was all man, He still had authority and sovereignty. The demons recognized Jesus and He cast them out. He also healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the storm. When I was in college, there were times that the professor stopped lecturing and they became a student like us. Whether it was the sharing of a personal story that related to the subject matter, or for a few minutes, treating the class as equals and discussing something important that was related to what they were teaching. I remember having a conversation with some fellow students and a professor in his office about Advent. I thought it was cool and meaningful and I remember the professor validating our conversation while giving us something to think about. We still treated him with the respect he deserved, but we also took the opportunity to have a more personal conversation with him even if what’s for a short timeI also had to realize the next time we were in class, he was the professor and had the authority. The same is with Jesus, even though He became man and dwelt among us, He is still God and we need to remember that

  The last aspect of Jesus we will cover is His divinity. If Jesus wasn’t perfect or divine, we still be lost in our sin and an eternal relationship with God is out of the question. His divinity is what gives Him the authority over death and is what made His sacrifice on the cross valid and applicable. Jesus being divine means that He was perfect and sinless, which this allowed Him to take our sin and punishment. If Jesus wasn’t divine, would He be any different than us?

  To wrap it up, here is my question we could ponder through all of the Advent Season. Who is Jesus and why does that matter to me? On of Jesus famous questions to His disciples was “who do you say that I am?” There are countless answers, but if it doesn’t come down to Lord of all and my personal Savior, we are in trouble. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis wrote once, Jesus is either Lord, Liar or Lunatic and we not only decide which one He is, but live it out and deal with the consequences