“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5

It is on! Full decoration mode is here and that means unboxing all the Christmas decorations to set them up again THIS year. I am SOO glad that my wife is dedicated to the task!!! It is an art with her. Me? I am the fixer! Last night she called from the other room…”hey, I have some half broken lights here, can you help?” I cringed!

No one seems to knows the reason, as I have vigorously sought the answers…with NO result. How is it that you can take a string of Christmas lights that are working, box them up, and a year later find they either no longer work… or only half of them do?? It frustrates me beyond belief! Over the years I have TRIED to fix them. Now, I just throw them in the trash!

Years ago I bought one of those tools that is supposed to help find and fix Christmas lights that are wired in series. I discovered that each bulb has to be removed and independently tested to find the one that is broken. After spending 2 hours on 1 string of lights, I discovered I don’t have the time or patience! The tool followed the broken lights into the garbage!

In Matthew 5:14 Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” He didn’t say “LIGHTS” of the world. Which leads me to ask Him, “are we wired in series or parallel?” It makes a difference! Very simply put, when lights are wired in series, they ALL go out when 1 goes out. In parallel, simply replacing the one broken bulb can easily fix the problem. As quickly as I thought the question, He gave me the answer. Just like He did you!

We are ‘The Church.’ A TEAM! The Bride of Christ! That means NO one gets replaced! Which means, if one goes out, we ALL fail to shine as we were designed! Which SIGNIFICANTLY adds to Jesus problems. Because He PROMISED He would NEVER Leave or forsake even 1 of His own. Not even ME!

I am afraid for the Church today. FAR too many people are looking for entertainment and pretty than for serious shining into a dark world. Christians bop around looking for a ‘show’ instead of a ‘job.” To stand AROUND the pretty lights instead of BEING ONE is a desire from the pit of hell. And the darkness is closing in.

If I am more interested in GETTING something than GIVING it, then I am a broken light. The Gospels are very clear, we GET when we GIVE… NOT the other way around. Wanting MORE, whether it is money or a feeling, is a sign that ‘REPAIR MAN JESUS’ is on the way. And He WILL poke, prod, test and try EVERY bulb in order to get it working as it should. It’s a promise! And it can be painful. So how’s YOUR light?

“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:3

Ahhhhhhh Christmas! Just a couple weeks away now! And if you haven’t jumped on the ‘get ready’ train, the time is NOW! I have been thinking about this very special time of year a lot lately. Having booked 6+ decades under my belt, I thought I knew everything there was to know about this holiday. But alas…. No!!

Growing up as a kid I had the opportunity to see some really incredible explanations for things no one had yet defined. Cartoons and movies explained things like the North Pole, Reindeer, Santa down a chimney, the 24 hour toy dismemberment system and…elves! But THIS year I am left with a conundrum that I CANNOT explain. It concerns “Elf on a Shelf!”

I have gone to the experts… in this case moms…and none have been able to explain this hypocrisy to me either. But I can say for certain, that if MY brain has figured it out, you can be sure that your KIDS have too. The conundrum? If it is the duty of “Elf on a Shelf” to report bad behavior to Santa, how is it that HE gets to be naughty? How can something meant for good… be so BAD? Well…The same can be said of the 10 (plus a LOT more) commandments!

The originators of “Elf on a Shelf” in 2004 did NOT include being naughty as part of its character. That came about by human nature. Some mom may have had a little nip before bed and began thinking too much! We don’t know. But we’re stuck with the 2 headed monster now! The Commandments are perfect example of the same principle. Perfect rules for being perfect do not MAKE us perfect! They only point out the fact that… we are NOT!

The Bible is clear. We have God’s perfect standard and are required to live it! But we don’t! The LAW, like the Elf, CLEARLY PROVES what we REALLY are! Failed…imperfect…SINNERS! And what do sinners need? Ahhhh Yes… A SAVIOR!!! Which, interestingly enough, is the REAL reason for this Holy time of year as our loving God sent His WONDERFUL gift to a bunch of failures!         Merry CHRISTmas!

Have YOU received His Gift of Forgiveness?

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Luke 2:48

I walked in on a very serious conversation. Sensing the tone, I listened carefully, taking in the words being said so that I would not be disruptive. The look on my grandson’s face was priceless, as he was doing some intense contemplating. I learned he had committed a SERIOUS infraction, and that I had just happened to walk in during the remedial negotiation process between him and his mom! His crime? He had touched ‘The Elf!’

I had known about ‘Elf on a Shelf’ as we have had one in my family for years. My wife and daughters are all over this Christmas tradition, comparing notes and ideas to aid its effectiveness. And the Elf’s job? To watch child behavior and nightly report back to Santa so Santa can upgrade his ‘naughty or nice’ list! For behavior modification, the idea is pure genius!

When I was a kid we would actually GO visit Santa and PERSONALLY give an account of our behavior. It was a fearful thing because we were never really SURE if we were on his NICE list and had earned “toy status.” But a 1 time behavioral modification proved WAY too ineffective. Enter “Elf on a Shelf” with the job of recording EVERY action…and updating Santa EVERY NIGHT! Breaking the rules becomes VERY serious when ‘Elf’ shows up!

I had this in the back of my mind as I was reading about Jesus as a child. I was ASTONISHED when I read that Mary & Joseph were astonished at Jesus’ independence, and then gave him a harsh reprimand! “WHY HAVE YOU TREATED US LIKE THIS?” If Elf had been around, Jesus would have been reported as ‘naughty!’ Yes… JESUS! Which, when I think about it, seems to have a hint of being a little sacrilegious!

The Bible goes on to tell us that AFTER this happened, “He (Jesus) went down to Nazareth with them (Mary & Joseph) and was obedient to them.” Vs 51. Which makes me wonder… did Jesus do ANYTHING He didn’t HAVE to do… just because Mary and Joseph expected it of Him? And if He did… should I? I mean, after all… His REAL Father WAS watching… AND keeping His own list!! Clearly.. even JESUS had CHOICES! Which leaves ‘ME’ with a question for ‘ME’… What is it that motivates… ME?

I never noticed that. — Scrooge, in the 1984 movie version, after the Ghost of Christmas Past points out that Belle “resembled your sister”.

Scrooge’s life went astray sometime when he was a young man. We can, with reasonable certainty, say he didn’t wake up one morning and think, Hm. I’m content where I am. I’m enjoying my apprenticeship with Old Fezziwig. I’m in love with a beautiful young woman. I have friends. But I think I’ll begin morphing into a money-centric fool who loses his way, gives up his girl, cuts off his friendships, and winds up as a bitter old miser living in a drafty old house, my life utterly devoid of the slightest semblance of joy — even if it would make a great book by, say, Charles Dickens, assuming I were visited by four eccentric Ghosts.

No, it happened insidiously, as if one of the tires on our car gets out of alignment and starts to wear heavily on the outside edge. But we don’t check on it. And the problem gets worse. It affects the other tires. Soon our steering wheel shakes like an out-of-kilter washing machine agitator, and our car is unsafe to drive. Either that or we crash.

In the 1984 movie version, the Ghost of Christmas Present calls out Scrooge for letting life pass him by. “You’ve gone through life not noticing a lot,” the Spirit says. In the same movie version, at the end, Scrooge tells his nephew Fred, “I see the shadow of your mother in your face. I forgot how much I loved her. Perhaps I chose to forget.”

We need to live intentionally, with our antennae up. We need to notice our life as we’re living it. Why? For three reasons. The first is to appreciate all that God has blessed us with. Given the chance to live their lives again, fifty octogenarians were asked by sociology professor and author Tony Campolo what they would do differently. They said they would risk more, would do more things that would live on after they were dead, and would reflect more on the journey while they were on it.

To not pay attention is to miss the wonder of being alive.

To miss the people around us, the needs around us, and the beauty around us. And we miss the umbrella above it all: The God who loves us unconditionally.

In these days of multitasking, social media, and dawn-to-dusk rushing around, I wonder if we’re going too fast to do so. Or if we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that we’re accomplishing so much, when what we’re really doing is making treasure of the trivial — immersing ourselves in making money, for example, at the expense of building relationships. Or if subconsciously we purposely go too fast — to avoid having to face a compulsive “us” that we might not want to face.

Dickens grew up as a keen observer of the world and his place in it. Sickly and frail, he was much more participant than athlete. “He loved to watch people at church, in the market, at school,” writes Norrie Epstein, author of The Friendly Dickens. Not surprisingly, he became a writer, an observer of — and commentator on — the human condition.

In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Emily, who died while giving birth to her second child, is given a chance to witness the day she turned twelve. In doing so, she realizes all the nuances of life she would never again see.

“It goes so fast,” she says. “We don’t have time to look at one another. Goodbye world… Goodbye to clocks ticking… and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths… and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you… Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”

“No,” replies the stage manager, then pauses. “The saints and poets, maybe — they do some.”

Second, we need to notice what’s going on around us so we can be there for others. Thomas Hood, in an article appearing a year after A Christmas Carol was released, wondered if, like Scrooge, “our own heads have not become more inaccessible, our hearts more impregnable, our ears and eyes more dull and blind, to sounds and sights of human misery.”

We can’t help others if we don’t notice their needs. In the 1938 Christmas Carol movie, starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge, the Ghost of Jacob Marley tells Ebenezer, “Each day a man has a thousand chances to make right.” But not if that man doesn’t notice those opportunities.

Finally, we need to notice what’s going on around us to keep us headed in the right direction in our lives. I was sailing in the San Juan Islands off Washington State, deep in conversation with my sailing buddy. Suddenly I realized we were far off course. Why? Tides had shifted, and I had been too preoccupied to notice.

So, too, did the tides shift in Scrooge’s life. Perhaps he could have compensated had he kept his eyes on the headland where he was originally aimed and noticed the shifting tides in his life. But once we lose sight of land, once we can’t see — or won’t notice — where we’re headed, the shoals grow hungry for the catch.

Said Albert Einstein, “He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

Excerpted with permission from 52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol by Bob Welch, copyright Thomas Nelson.

Are you awake? Are you aware of where you are headed? Do you want to reach the end of life wishing you’d done more for others and been more in touch with the life going on around you? What do you need to wake up to today? How do we need to refocus in order to live the best God-powered and God-directed lives possible? Come join the conversation on our blog. We’d love to hear from you!

“His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.” Luke 1:50

It was darker than a stack of black cats in the church parking lot last night. Our light pole had electric power to it, as it had been just repaired. But apparently, the light had gone bad as well. Needing light to allow people to see, and taking the opportunity of Christmas, I went to a back closet and found a box filled with strings of Christmas lights. THAT idea turned out to be just as bad as the broken bulb!

Reaching into the box I grabbed the top most string of lights and tugged. Then I tugged harder. What appeared to be about 100 feet of Christmas lights came out in one big ball! IMMEDIATELY I realized that to reach my goal of providing light to help people SEE would NOT require speed, but patience! I STINK at patience! But having no alternative handy, I slowly tried to untangle the mess.

Untangling yielded to surprise as I got the first of many strings loose. Having done this before, I decided I’d better check them out before running them outside. Plugging them into an outlet… NOTHING happened! Tic Toc… I went to untangle second string. Patience… plug in… DEAD! By then, if my impatience was light, everyone on the block would have been blinded! I FINALLY found the third string to work!

For YEARS I have been coming to God, like a Santa Claus, with the same request. I even have Biblical backing for it in Psalm 51:10-12! “Dear God.. gimmie a pure heart, a steadfast spirit and joy… NOW!” I have discovered and come to a conclusion, which is an epiphany… HE DOESN’T DO THAT!

The verse today is from ‘Mary’s Magnificat.’ A kind of Psalm to God for choosing ‘her’ to bear the Messiah that would become ‘The Light of the World.’ The words “to those who fear Him,” hit me with new significance. NOTHING about Mary or her situation came in an instant. She had feared, listened and obeyed God. Stringing those qualities together, over time, got her noticed and chosen for a VERY DIFFICULT and ONGOING assignment.

I am, if nothing else, a perfect example of stinkin’ thinkin’! God cannot and does not take a dirty, sinful, broken, disobedient heart and instantly replace it with a new clean one. Though I am SAVED that way, it seems that a CHANGED life is a process of SLOWLY yielding my tangles to Him and working WITH Him through the process. To make matters harder, I have discovered that God is NEVER in a hurry! The light won’t come till the work is done!

Dear Lord… please help me see my messy tangles, and give me the courage to ALLOW you to tug where needed. While you’re at it, please give me YOUR light to help me see YOU, no matter how dark things may seem! Thank you.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you…” 1 Peter 1:3-4

Well… Christmas sacrilege has been committed in my own house. The temptation, easily held at bay in years, became greater and our resistance waned with age. This year… like the proverbial tree before the ax… we fell! But I must confess… I like it!

My mother would be turning over in her grave about now. But she was cremated so that is not possible! The decision to have a REAL Christmas tree instead of an artificial one, was ingrained in me by mom from birth. Through 42 years of marriage, my wife sang the same tune! That is until a few weeks ago when we received a “50% off artificial Christmas trees” flier from Lowes. The urge to ‘sin’ hit Katie and I at the same precise moment! “What is the harm in just LOOKING!???” we thought.

I’d normally feel bad after confessing such failure. But the evidence of our choice stands tall and proud in our living room! And it is BEEEEUUUUTEEEFULLLL! The shape and look are simply perfect. Now all I need to do is ‘justify’ my actions. So here goes! The way I see it, it all boiled down to myth, mess and money!

The 7 last words of a church are, “we never did it that way before!” Which in the light of progress… means absolutely nothin’! Traditions are often just myths repeated over and over and can actually impede progress! Dead pine needles are simply a mess that I tire of dealing with. And the money I will save over the years to come makes me SMILE! I guess you could say that, because of experience, I have now become a cheerleader for the other side!

‘Hope’ is the emphasis of this Advent week. This Bible verse CLEARLY shows that it is NOT a FAKE Hope, but VERY VERY REAL! I have to confess that far too often I fall into the pit of the fake, dead, traditional hope. Struggling through life’s problems with an, “it’ll all be better when I get to Heaven” attitude is FAKE Faith! This verse tell me is it a “LIVING HOPE” for the NOW! Not later! And it can NEVER EVER SPOIL OR FADE AWAY! Which is EXACTLY what live Christmas trees do! All over the floor!

When a real tree is cut down, it is dead! Dying produces costly messes that MUST be dealt with. Jesus Christ died, then arose, to deal with ALL of my messes. He now LIVES to give me hope and abundant life, If I will simply drop my dead fleshy way of thinking and yield to His promises. I KNOW Him! I KNOW He works! And though I once was lost in stinking thinking, There is nothing FAKE about HIM or His Hope! He will shine forever!

Now I just hope I can get all of that blessing back in the box!!

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16

It is the first week of Advent and I am joyful. Over the last few years I have jumped ‘all-in’ to Christmas much earlier than I used to. I am not sure if it is due to my age or to tiring, dark, worldly news. But either way, the thought of celebration, Christmas, Jesus birth and the sights and sounds of joyful celebration stir deep hope within me. I hadn’t realized how deep until last night.

This year, I made the decision to get all the Christmas stuff out of storage and bring it home… WITHOUT Katie having to ask me! In fact, when she got home from work and saw the fully loaded truck, her face didn’t reflect ANY joy at all! She seemed MORE stressed. Over the next 24 hours, she started to warm up to the idea of a ‘Christmas’ point of view.

It was last night, while I was setting up the Christmas tree, that the reality of my desperate need for ‘hope’ really hit. I had turned on the TV and surfed the channels to find SOMETHING with a hint of Christmas in it. It landed on a station that was playing an old Perry Como Christmas special from YEARS ago. The picture was fuzzy and Angie Dickinson was TRYING to sing a song with Perry. SHE WAS TERRIBLE! If you picture St. Peter trying to ‘rap’ with Kanye West… you’d get the idea! But the measure of my desperation came when I realized… I was SINGING WITH HER!

I USED to think that ‘Christmas Spirit’ was something that came upon me like a mysterious visitor with a sack full of Heavenly dust. Until that visitation came and the ‘feeling’ hit, Christmas was just another day. I have learned that, like OTHER Christian characteristics, FEELING FOLLOWS ACTION! NOT the other way around.

If I want to FEEL love, I need to PRACTICE it in reality. If I want to invoke a Heavenly point of view, I need to deliberately drop the worldly one first! To ultimately FEEL I need to decisively ACT. A point that came with proof just last night! As I turned off the TV show, I heard Katie SINGING as she was decorating the ‘Snowman Bathroom.’ I smiled! She sings a LOT better than Angie!

“you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Galatians 4:7

My wife and I had a wonderful time last week as we got away on a cruise during Thanksgiving Week. It all started when I received an email from a website that caters to vacations ‘on sale!’ It wasn’t really ‘planned’ as much as it just ‘came along!’ When I saw the SALE price I was hooked into taking a peek at the possibilities. More intrigue, research and agreement landed us on a ship!

If you have ever been on a cruise, you know you will get 2 questions from people when you get home. 1. Where did you go? 2. What did you do? It’s just a given! Over the years I have come up with standard answers to both questions… ‘Nowhere’ and ‘nothin’! I believe these answers, in essence, are the major points of the whole ‘cruise’ experience in the first place.

As I stood on the deck of the ship and looked out at the vast ocean with NO land in view, It struck me how very small I am. At one point, as I sat in a lounge chair, I could have SWORN I was ‘one’ with the compass heading. When I stood up and actually paid attention, I was actually facing 1 o’clock and not 12! The clouds and waves were deceptive!

At the same time I was doing ‘nothin,’ the thought hit me that my Captain son was almost 7000 miles away standing on the deck of a ship as well. But with a VERY big difference! It is his JOB! He HAS to know where he is going and what he is doing, since lives and a mission are at stake!

As Thanksgiving 2019 fades into the sunset, we are steering an Advent Course toward Christmas. Simply being born is the ticket to work, chaos, struggle and death. I know that sounds dark! But it is the truth. And it was precisely this reason that God sent His Son into the world… To SAVE!

As ‘The Season’ approaches, I find myself asking those same 2 questions over and over again. “Where am I going,” and “What am I doing?” I have to admit that reality finds me ‘off course’ often. But there is a Captain on the Bridge of my life who has a purpose for me. And it’s NOT just to do ‘nothin!’

I am being prodded to remember that I am being GROOMED! As His son, I will inherit what He is, and will reign with Him when I get there. How will I do it? Well, like you, God is using circumstances to mold, shape and teach me how to be a little more serious about His purposes. And as He moves me, a little more intrigue, research and agreement with Him will land me EXACTLY where I am supposed to be!