Christmas

Still Christmas

/ The Pastor

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. [Luke 2:20]

It’s still Christmas. And I’m not talking about being in the midst of the 12 days of Christmas. It’s still Christmas in the sense that the Good News of Christmas is still Good News and always will be. I don’t imagine the shepherds glorifying and praising God only for a season. I imagine it continued on and on. They saw and heard amazing news. They gazed into the face of salvation. They had their lives turned upside down (or in terms of my Christmas sermon, “messed up”). I mean, how does one get sick and tired of news like this:

Jesus was born for you that you may know God and therefore everlasting life.

That is amazing!
That is awesome!

A season is not enough time to share the Good News of Jesus for there are many who have not heard. And for those who have heard, we often forget. So continue on your way, like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God for all you have seen and heard.

Praise be to God, always and forever, Amen!!!

The Pastor -|—

Christmas prayer

/ The Pastor

O God, loving Father, what a beautiful morning to wake up and contemplate your amazing love. For Jesus was born for us that we may come to know more of you. Not that we don’t think about your love on other days but Christmas seems to heighten our awareness of this awesome gift. May this awareness not weaken throughout the year. May we not drift back into being complacent. May we not take this gift of all gifts for granted.

Holy God, I am also reminded of those who are grieving this Christmas season; people who are mourning the death of a loved one or the ending of a relationship. May they be reminded of your amazing grace and love. May they be granted strength and courage to meet the days ahead. May they cling to that which will never end; You, O God.

God of healing, I am especially mindful this morning of those in my own community who are sick. There seems to be a lot of people dealing with the flu or some other ailment. Please don’t let Satan win but rather grant healing, strength or whatever is needed so that those not feeling well, here in Jackson or elsewhere, may remember the joy of this day.

O God, you are great. You are awesome. And words fail to describe you to the fullest. Bless this day and all our days that we may glorify you and shout from the mountain top that Jesus Christ is born and is Lord of all. All praise to you, O God.

Amen!!!

The Pastor -|—

Christmas blessing from The Pastor

/ The Pastor

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From my home to your home…

We hope and pray that your Christmas is one filled with joy and great expectation as you worship this awesome God of ours. May the Holy Spirit strengthen or create the faith in you to see Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And May the God of all creation, create in you the passion to shout from the mountain tops that Jesus has been born for all. Let us pray…

Loving, holy and amazing God, I thank you for this incredible gift, Jesus Christ our Lord.
May those who are grieving find hope.
May those who are lost be found.
May those who are oblivious come to know.
May those who hunger be fed.
May those stray be carried back.
And may the hope of Christmas be our strength as we cling to the hope of the resurrection. All praise to you, O God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

The Pastor -|—

Morning devotions ~ Longing and Fainting

/ The Pastor

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord ; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. [Psalm 84:1-2]

I like to travel and visit new and interesting places or visit some of my old favorites. One of my favorite places to go is NW Washington. It’s beautiful out there; along the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound. I love the seafood and especially seeing friends. And being out on the road can be fun for a while; driving through the mountains, but eventually the traveling and the time away gets old and I begin to long for home. I long for my place of rest and peace.

How lovely is your dwelling place

The psalmist here is longing to go home. He realizes he has been away long enough and is anxiously awaiting the day that he will return to the courts of the Lord. Later in this beautiful Psalm, the author writes, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

We do live in a sinful and wicked world and the heart wired for the Lord longs to return to it’s creator; to dwell in the lovely place of the Lord. Christmas is a time to remember that God has opened the way for his children to return home. And the way home is Jesus. Through faith in Jesus; in his death and resurrection, we can have the hope dwelling in God’s lovely places someday. And when you see your salvation in Jesus, your heart, too, will long and faint for the glory of God and to dwell in his courts forever.

Sing for joy to our living God for He is Good and Awesome!

Have a very Merry Christmas and God bless!

The Pastor -|—

Morning devotions ~ Peace Among Us

/ The Pastor

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” [Luke 2:14]

When Jesus was born…
~ The Roman empire didn’t suddenly fall.
~ Wars didn’t stop.
~ Hunger didn’t vanish.
~ Poverty didn’t disappear.
~ Diseases weren’t instantly cured.
~ World peace was not achieved.

None of these things happened, but peace did appear. And it appeared in the midst of this stuff. People often wonder and question:

If God is so loving then why is there war? Disease? Death of the young? Etc…

If these things exist then God can not. That is silly rationale and something that does not see or understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact of the matter is that Jesus came in the midst of a fallen world (among it) to redeem creation from sin. Jesus came to save you. When Jesus was born, the very thing the angels sang about happened:

Peace came among us

And with that peace among us ~ Jesus ~ we can have the strength to face conflict, disease, hunger, death and anything this world throws at us; knowing that God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, has overcome this world by defeating the last enemy: Death. And our peace is that through faith in Jesus we too have overcome this world.

So live at peace is this chaotic, messed up world and hold onto the hope of the resurrection. Be at peace and sing with the angels:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Praise be to God!

The Pastor – |—

Morning devotions ~ God’s handiwork

/ The Pastor

[1] The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1 ESV)

Walk outside and take a good look around. How does one think there is no God when you consider the intricate design of creation? How does one think that everything we see is nothing more than randomness? How does one base their system of beliefs on a claim that there is no God? But worse yet, if you believe in God how does one not fall on their face in worship and awe?

All around the heavens declare the glory of God. And that right there should make us feel guilty when WE do not declare the glory of God.
Creation cries out that God is awesome but yet we busy ourselves with the cares of this world.
Creation declares the greatness of God and we try to explain it away.
Creation and the heavens bow down in worship and what do we do?

God’s handiwork is all around us; we just need to look. But the greatest handiwork of all time is what happened in the manger at Christmas.. Through faith in Jesus, God has made a New Creation:

YOU!

Christmas is about love and peace coming to the world to complete what God started in creation. Through faith in Jesus we have forgiveness of sins and thus New Life. So take a new and fresh look at the manger this Christmas season and see God’s handiwork work there. And don’t forget to join the heavens in declaring God’s glory; for God is indeed worthy.

Praise be to God!

The pastor -|—

A Christmas reflection and blessing

/ The Pastor

Oh boy…my least favorite day is coming up tomorrow.  Oh well…I have one more opportunity to proclaim the Christmas Gospel this morning before the post-Christmas blues hit.

Last night (Christmas Eve) was wonderful.  We were greeted with a couple inches of that beautiful white stuff; a sanctuary full of family and friends; wonderful music from our organist and my wife’s family on brass along with a confirmation student of mine. We had the privilege of former students reading scripture along with two of my release time kids and two of my confirmation students. I also got finish leading worship while holding my little girl (who celebrated her first Christmas).  And all of this while worshiping our awesome God who came to us at Christmas time in Jesus Christ.

A wonderful night!

Now I am preparing to head out to my country congregation (Belmont Lutheran Church) to lead Christmas Day worship.  And that will be wonderful in it’s own unique way.

Looking back on all the preparations, family time, worship, etc, I just don’t understand how someone could possibly look forward to Christmas being done.  I will welcome the rest but I will be anxious for next year. In the meantime receive this Christmas blessings from me to you as you worship and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ:

May the joy of the Christ-child fill your hearts.
May the joy of the shepherds lead you out to glorify and praise the Lord.
May you ponder with Mary all the things that God has done.
May you have the tenacity of the Magi to follow Jesus each and every day.
And may you bask in the awesome love of God.

Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The pastor -|—

My least favorite day

/ The Pastor

I love Christmas, but recently I heard a pastor say something that saddened me:

“The only thing I love as much as Christmas is the day after Christmas.”

I didn’t quite know what to say to that because I knew what they meant; they were looking forward to Christmas being over 😦

Christmas is indeed busy.  There’s lot’s of extra things to do on top of what we already need to do.  Yesterday morning, for example, I thought I had the Christmas Eve service all planned last week.  I gave the musicians the bulletin outline so they could practice the music, but then my secretary pointed out a mistake I made ~ I put a carol in there twice.  So I had to make some changes and contact the musicians.  And this is all while I am trying to get my newsletter article done, do sermon prep, make a delivery to the nursing home and run a couple other errands.  And then the phone was ringing and I had to try very hard to be patient with people (because it is not their fault that everything was piling up on me).

Christmas can cause a lot of headaches and stress and sleepless night for a pastor but you know something…

I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

For me Christmas is a golden opportunity to preach the Gospel to people who normally don’t come to worship.  It’s my chance to slap people across the face with the Good News of the Christ-child being born for all people.  It’s the perfect time to tell people that Christmas is not a secular holiday but rather a celebration of perfect love coming down to us.  As one of my 4th grade girls said in release time just recently:

“If Jesus wasn’t born then he wouldn’t have died on the cross for our sins and therefore we wouldn’t go to heaven.”

Amen!  That’s the Good News of Christmas.

Next to Easter, Christmas is my favorite day of the year and my least favorite day is the day after Christmas because it means I have 364 days to wait to do this again.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The pastor -|—

Unprepared: A prayer

/ The Pastor

Holy God, Advent is a season of preparation (like I need to tell you that), but I feel so unprepared.

There are so many people that need to hear the Good News of the Christ child.
There are so many hurts that need your healing touch.
There are so many lonely people that need to know your presence.
There are so many misdirected people following secular holiday idols.

I think of all of this and feel overwhelmed and therefore I feel so unprepared to meet the demands of ministry.  So I lay it out on the line for you this morning:
~ I fall back; trusting that your Holy Spirit will catch me.
~ I let go; trusting that your Holy Spirit will guide me.
~ I will wait; trusting that you will do something absolutely amazing.

So maybe it is a good thing that I feel unprepared because that leaves room for you to do something through me.  So I lift up to you those who don’t know Jesus, those who are hurting, those who are lonely and those who are misdirected.  Prepare me to minister to them; that they may know the true joy that is Jesus Christ our Savior born to us.

And may I continue to feel unprepared.

Amen!

The pastor -|—

Sometimes…

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

Don’t judge me when you see me seemingly doing nothing:
~ Sometimes I just need to sit and reflect.
~ Sometimes I just need to savor the Word just read.
~ Sometimes I just need to talk to my Savior.
~ Sometimes I just need to slowly sip my coffee.
~ Sometimes I just need to daydream about the ministry before me.
~ Sometimes I just need to mull over a conversation.

Sometimes I look lazy, sometimes I look lost but whatever the case don’t judge me because it’s in those times I can be the most productive. Many people don’t understand how a pastor works because how a pastor works can be so different from how we saw our parents work. But a pastor’s work can be just as taxing thus the different kind of work we sometimes engage in.

Today I sat in the corner at my favorite coffee shop for an hour or so; holding my Google tablet, sipping coffee and nibbling on a cookie.

And that was work.

My finger nails didn’t get dirty and I don’t have sore muscles as you know them but the pastor does feel the effects of ministry thus my coffee shop work.

And as I walked back to my office; breathing in the cool winter air, I felt refreshed and ready to do some more “traditional” work; work that doesn’t draw the ire of some.

But now you may say, “Work? You’re writing a blog post. How is that work?” To answer that fully I would have to write another blog post but I’m not going to do that. So what I will say in response will have to suffice for now:

Sometimes I just have to write…

And that is work of a different kind; one that exercises the mind.  But now I’m off and ready to go; thankful for the “work” I did today.  May God be praised in all I do and say; and not just sometimes but always.

The pastor -|—