Light

Never Done

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Good morning and Happy New Year 🙂

It is that time – my Sunday article for The News Tribune (Tacoma) is due to be published this morning, so that is what you will see below. To God be the glory!

Merry 10th day of Christmas (on this 3rd day of January) and Happy New Year. I hope and pray that you had a wonderful Christmas, even amid this pandemic, and I also hope and pray that your 2021 will be filled with joy and peace; a joy and peace that only comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. But let us get back to Christmas, because it is still Christmas, at least for my family and me.

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me — I am just kidding — I am not going to sing. On the 4th day of Christmas (December 28) my wife and I finally got the kids away from their toys and went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. Normally at this time, we are in the Midwest and in Arizona celebrating Christmas with our families. This year, due to the pandemic, we had to stay home but decided we would make the most of it. Our HOA and many neighborhoods around us had such wonderful Christmas light displays. So, during the time before Christmas, we spent many nights going for family walks to enjoy the lights. Now we thought we could enjoy these lights even longer.

As we toured our HOA we quickly noticed how dark it looked. Many homes had already taken down their lights or just did not turn them on. Some houses that had a Christmas tree prominently displayed in their front window had taken those down as well. We continued driving and only found a small sampling of Christmas lights. We went to another neighborhood and found the same thing. Some of our favorite displays were gone for the year. It almost felt like someone was trying to rip Christmas from our hands. For us, the festive lights were a reprieve from our pandemic-filled world. Now, it felt like darkness was trying to regain its grip. I did not like the feeling and neither did my wife. When we returned home, we noticed that half of our lights on our house were not on. “What is going on?” we thought. Thankfully, it was an easy fix and now our home is lit up again, and it will stay lit up through January 5 (the 12th day of Christmas).

Yes, the day on our calendars labeled “Christmas Day” has now passed, but Christmas is never done. The promises are not something you pack away. The light that came on that first Christmas cannot be extinguished. And more importantly, the darkness will never, ever regain its grip, for the light of the world, Jesus, has defeated the darkness and reigns on high.

Yes, the day will come when I will turn off my lights and pack them away. Our tree will come down and the decorations will be neatly stowed in their tubs. But Jesus lives and so will I. Jesus lives, and so you can too. Christmas is not over. It is never, ever over. So, I am keeping the Christmas lights on and the tree up, but more importantly I will cling to Jesus – lights or no lights. Merry Christmas, today and always. Amen.

Light and Dark

/ The Pastor

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:9‭-‬11 ESV

A person who says they are a Christian and yet shows hatred towards someone is a person residing in darkness with nothing more than a burning wooden match. They see what is in their immediate vicinity but can’t see the whole picture. Eventually their match burns out and they have nothing left but darkness; walking and stumbling to their destruction. A person who truly follows Jesus; who has the Light of the Holy Spirit residing in them sees the bigger picture. Instead of shadows and outlines, they see their neighbor as a child of God. The one who truly walks with Jesus, the Light of the world, walks in the light where darkness has been scattered. Their destination is Life eternal.

Beware what your source of light is, the wooden match of worldly pride, selfishness and self-righteousness or the Light of Christ. One will be extinguished and the other is eternal.

Amen.

Morning Chuckle and Promise

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. [Psalm 119:105]

The above verse was the verse of the day on the YouVersion Bible app for Sunday, January 6. A good verse for Epiphany Sunday but that is not why I am sharing this. You see, Sunday at 1:30 AM began a 23 hour power outage for us.

[Read the verse again] 🙂

You can’t make this stuff up ~ at least not with a straight face. This is simply God with a sense of humor. Got to love Him, right? The other funny thing about it was when I shared this verse on Facebook on Sunday morning I didn’t catch the connection until someone commented on it. Either the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet or the outage had dampened my sense of humor.

Either way, no matter what happens in life, God’s Word is a light to our path. Power outage, cancer, illness, job loss, kids out of control, marriage problems, etc. No matter the situation, at the very least you have God’s Word ~ which is A LOT. For you see, If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. [Psalm 139:11-12] Basically, there is no hiding from God in the darkness AND darkness can not overtake you to hide you from God. Take joy in this fact.

God is:
Sovereign
Mighty
Powerful
Omnipotent
Omniscient
Lord
A strong Fortress
etc…

AND…

has a sense of humor 🙂

Thank you God

The Pastor -|—

Light

/ The Pastor

Father God,
You give Light to a dark world
that we may see the Truth.
You give Hope to a hopeless world
that we may have Joy.
You give Life to a dead world
that we may worship You forever.
Oh God,
open our eyes to see Your glory
that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Amen