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We are standing on the threshold of a new year. We have just a couple of days to reflect on the past year and then complete plans to launch into the new one. That’s a bit dramatic! But in reality, all of us have reflections on what we did or did not accomplish last year and what we are determined to see happen as the sun rises on 2017.  What will the New Year look like for each of us?

In breezing through a book recently, words jumped from the page which caused me to reflect on the past year and project in the direction of the new. You may have read the book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, by Mark Batterson. But do you remember the five words nestled in one of the chapters? “Don’t accumulate possessions; accumulate experiences!”  Five simple words which encompass the battle you and I faced last year, and will again in 2017.  Life is easily tied to what we earn, what we possess, and the natural thirst for more. We all want grand experiences, but I am not sure we are as intentional about experiences are we are with possessions.

A great example of that observed truth happened to me earlier this year. My wife and I were making some plans for 2017. There is a conference available to us in a place that I didn’t even know existed. In the course of our discussions, my wife stated that we had to go to this conference because the venue was on her bucket list. Well that was a shock, and I have now requested a full list of her bucket list since I definitely missed a big one. What was she saying? “There is something that I want to experience … And we are going!”

In all honesty, I haven’t accumulated experiences in an intentional way over the years. Too much time has been spent working, earning, and just living life. You may feel the same way. But as a Christ-follower who wants to enjoy all that the Father has for me, I am determined to allow 2017 to be different. From fun adventures to deeply spiritual experiences, there are things to do and places to go that have nothing to do with accumulating possessions next year. Your experiences won’t look like mine, but make a decision before the clock strikes twelve on Saturday night that 2017 will be different. Creating invaluable moments with parents, children or grandchildren will be experiences never forgotten.

One of the greatest decisions any of us can make as we launch into a new year is to consistently experience the Word.  At Journey onWord, we are doing a slower/deeper walk through the New Testament. We would love to have you join us again next year (or maybe for the first time).  But even if it’s not with us, PLEASE find a reading plan that will have you in God’s Word each and every day. There is no better way to experience God’s design for our lives than by being a daily student of His love letter to us.

2017 is upon us, and the choice is ours.  Will you focus on accumulating possessions or accumulating experiences?  Without intentionality, we will work well at possessions and miss experiences that will be unforgettable. Plan now, and remember there is no better experience than experiencing God!

Happy New Year from all of us at Journey onWord!

Yesterday ended at midnight, and we have six days until the New Year. The pace and distractions of Christmas can be staggering … and then we are confronted with another year. We have a few days in between to prepare ourselves for 2017. Maybe, just maybe, the following words are appropriate for you today. They are for me!

Quiet down before God, be prayerful before Him.

Those words, taken from Psalms 37:7 in The Message, sum up the desire and struggle that I have faced this year. In an effort to intentionally move at a slower pace (internally and externally), I have been keenly aware of my desire vs. my struggle. It only makes sense to me that every Christ-follower would want to live with a quiet center and prayerful heart. Why is it then that so few live with ears in tune to what the Lord is trying to convey? My personal conviction is that the quiet center available to us is so often filled with noise (I battle the noise, do you?). We can all find excuses for the noisy and distracted lives we lead, but when the noise and distractions cause us to miss what God is saying, no excuse is good enough. Is your heart quiet and prayerful heading into a new year?

My personal reading has taken me to a book called Thirsting for God, by Gary Thomas. Really thirsting after God will cause redirection in anyone’s life. I find that genuinely seeking the Father slows me down internally, and fuels the desire for a quiet center. See if the following quote from Thomas’ book resonates with where your journey is currently.

Living a busy life is like running a marathon—we tax our ability to care, our ability to focus, our strength to manage disappointment, our sense of peace and rest. Consequently, we live on the edge of exhaustion, irritation and anger. We have to re-gather ourselves, guard our peace, and focus so we will be free to care about the things that really matter and fully give ourselves to the tasks God calls us to address.

Are those first two sentences true of your life? Have you felt that guilty tug when someone needs your assistance, yet there is little energy or emotional reserves to help? We are all human and subject to seasons which are extremely busy and taxing. But to live with noise, distractions and chaotic schedules that limit our listening to God and hinder our walk with Him is unacceptable. You and I can quiet down and be prayerful before Him in 2017.

Countless times, I have read of Jesus stealing away to pray. I can imagine those were special moments and times of refreshment. I need exactly that in my life. But, oh how the distractions and noise become addictive! For me, it’s a choice: Will I, or won’t I live with a quiet heart and seek to embrace God in each moment? How about you? There can be no greater indication of our need to fight the noise and distractions than looking at Christ’s pattern. He needed to get away from the crowds, and He needed to pray. None of us can claim lives with more noise and chaos than the Son of God. Listening to the Father was obviously important to Him. Could it be any less important for us?  I believe a quiet center is available; do you?

My goal in this post is not to instruct, but to relate. My selfishness often drowns out the voice I most want to hear. This year, I have sought to grow quieter and embrace Him in each moment. Progress is slow, but I’m determined to have what is available to me. For me, it starts in my time with the Father. But then there has to be a conscious choice all day long to slow down, relax, and be a listener. I want to hear what He has to say. Your noise and distractions are probably different from mine, but you have them. Are you working from a quiet center, or just fitting God into your busy schedule?  I’ll admit that I wondered whether anyone would genuinely respond to my challenge. Is there anyone who will choose to create some space in these next few days to consider the condition of their heart and life as they hit the on-ramp to 2017.  If there is … if there is one person reading who is ready to tackle 2017 in a fresh and quieter way, I am praying for you!

God still speaks … slow down with me and listen.

Songs of the season are familiar to everyone. You can go in almost any store this week and hear a song about the Christ child. But most of the songs you and I will hear were written long ago. Think about it! I have been singing the story of Christmas for over fifty years, and although I know there must be some newer songs of the season, I couldn’t name any.  Except for one! I’m fairly certain you have heard of the only one I can name … “Mary, Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry.

Every time I hear that song, there is an emotional response.  Something about what Mary knew — and what she didn’t — fascinates me.  Very quickly after hearing the classic words of this song, I typically move on to something else, and often the words (and their meaning) don’t linger. You may feel the same way, so I wanted to rehearse with you a few of the lines from this newer song of the season. Just maybe, they will cause you to reflect on His majestic birth and awesome power. Remember, we are celebrating that God became flesh, and that truth can never be overstated.

Take just a moment to reflect on some select words from this song that you have heard, enjoyed and maybe never stopped to internalize.

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy
would one day walk on Water?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy
would save our sons and daughters?

Jesus did walk on water.  And He gives eternal life to anyone who puts their trust in Him for salvation. Can you imagine raising the Son of God in your home? Mary fixed Him meals, gave Him baths as a child, never had to punish Him for misdeeds, and was, no doubt, profoundly impacted by the infinite capacity of His greatness. But could she have imagined Him on the water … or, that He would one day die on the cross for us?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy
will give sight to a blind man?

When you kiss your little Baby,
you kiss the face of God?

My Savior (and, I trust, yours) did heal the blind man, and He still can, and will, heal today. Never let your soul become so barren that you doubt His ability to do what doctors only wish they could do … and sometimes can’t explain. One of the thrills of every parent and grandparent is giving that special little boy or girl hugs and kisses. Mary undoubtedly loved to give baby Jesus those same hugs and kisses. I get chills just typing the words that she was kissing the face of God. Could she have imagined in any way the depth of His specialness … His being fully God and fully baby boy?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy
is the Lord of all Creation?

This sleeping Child you’re holding
is the Great I Am!

We find in Scripture, by Him (Jesus) were all things created in heaven and on earth. Yet on the day of our dear Savior’s birth, with Mary holding Him close, what must she have been thinking? She was holding the Lord of all Creation, the One who spoke the world into being!  And she was to raise Him in her humble home?! He was called Immanuel—which means God with us. My mind races and is filled with wonder trying to comprehend what Mary sensed, and knew, about Immanuel in her home. Today we have Scripture, history and the Holy Spirit helping us worship the Lord of all creation – the Great I Am.  Mary had an angel’s pronouncement that the Lord was with her and that she would give birth to the Son of God. She knew His name would be Jesus, but I can only imagine what she sensed and wondered as that Holy Child grew up in her household.

I admit that I am fascinated and deeply moved by this newer “classic” of the season, “Mary, Did You Know?” On Christmas Day, we will celebrate what we do know – that true and lasting hope was born on that day.  Mary’s child grew up and walked on water, was a healer, calmed the storm, raised the dead, and died on a cross, and then to top it off, rose from the grave … ALL FOR US!

On this earth, we’ll never know all that Mary really understood. But I am so glad that this song of the season reminds me that Christmas is about the Lord of all creation, the great I Am … the Savior of all who accept Him!

Merry Christmas!

There is precious little narrative on the life of Jesus following his birth and before he begins his ministry as a man.  On this final Sunday of Advent, i believe one of those stories offers a great place to stop and sit awhile as the night of our dear Savior’s birth fast approaches.

In obedience to the law, Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice and dedicate him to God.  While there, they experienced two bold and beautiful brush strokes of God’s great grace and love.  The first involved a man named Simeon.  The Bible describes him as a “righteous and devout” man, who was “eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.” (Luke 2:25)  i invite you to quiet your heart in order to truly hear what follows in the very next verse …

The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.  That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God.

What an incredible promise to be given, and what a miraculous way in which it was fulfilled.  Obedient to the Spirit’s leading this ordinary man from Jerusalem visits the temple on the very day Mary and Joseph bring Jesus.   Amid what was most assuredly a busy temple scene, Simeon sees baby Jesus and instantly knows who He is.  He not only sees him from across the room, he approaches Mary and Joseph and takes the Messiah in his arms and speaks a prayer of praise.  How beautiful is this scene? … about to be even more so.

As Simeon is speaking, a woman comes along — a prophet, or prophetess as some translations refer to her.  She is in the temple because she literally lives at the temple.  The Bible says, “She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.” (Luke 2:37b)  This woman’s name is Anna.  She is a widow, and has been for a long time.  She was married only 7 years when her husband died, and different translations suggest that she had either been a widow for 84 years, or she was 84 years old when we meet her in this story.  Suffice it to say she lives and breathes her faith, and she has been faithful to God through fasting and prayer in the temple for a great many years.

Anna had been serving God singularly and silently in whatever way she could and suddenly God inserts her into this monumental moment.  She begins praising God openly, and with everyone she can find!  i love the words of the Message in Luke 2:38 where it says, “At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.”  “She showed up!”  Oh, the simple, yet profound truth … “She showed up!”  And, she “broke into an anthem of praise to God…”  Can’t you just see and hear her?!  This likely humble and gracious prophetess breaks into song and oratory, moving from person to person, pronouncing the Christ child to all who were “waiting expectantly.”

Expectantly waiting.  Can these words be used in description of you?  Are they true of you in this season of Advent?  Are they true of you as you live your life in this world with your eyes focused on the one to come?

Simeon and Anna challenge my heart and life in these last few days before Christmas, and in these “last days” before Christ’s return.  Am i expectantly waiting for my Savior?  Or, have expectations and my circumstances overwhelmed my mind, burdened my heart, and distracted my attention from Him?

i pray the story of Simeon and Anna, and those in the posts of the past three weeks of Advent, have moved your heart and mind in the direction of expectancy … Expectancy for the dawn that will break on the morning which commemorates the birth of our Savior; Expectancy for the moment when that same Savior breaks through the clouds to take us to be with him.  Until that moment and in this season,

May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.  May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Merry Christmas.

It was a gray, snowy day when I boarded the plane this afternoon. The plane had to be de-iced and it was only one-third full. I didn’t know or even see the pilot, and never checked the maintenance log of the aircraft. So, I guess you could say that I had faith in an anonymous pilot and airplanes I know nothing about.

Pastors and teachers admonish Christ-followers that the Word of God is powerful, life-changing and is God’s love letter to us. It will give us direction in life and guide us in tough situations. Christians readily acknowledge the great claims of the Word’s potential effectiveness in their lives, but either a lack of faith in the Word of God and/or the discipline to read it, is a consistent malady in almost every church in America.

2017 will give you and me a chance to prove pastors and teachers right. We can, with sincere faith, start a journey to let the Word truly permeate us. By faith, we can end 2017 with a consciousness that the Word does change those who genuinely seek and consume it. I am sure you would agree that God’s love letter to us is worthy of more trust than pilots we have never met, and planes that we know nothing about.

At Journey onWord, we are asking you to take your journey in the Word with us. We are dedicating 2017 as a “New Testament Year.” Please join us in reading daily through the pages of the New Testament. By the end of 2017, you will have finished reading the New Testament twice (January – June, July – December). Surveying God’s Word in this manner will have a definite effect on your spiritual walk. Knowing that it is easy to get started well each week and then miss a day or two, our plan is designed to make every Saturday a catch up day. For those who haven’t missed any days of reading, Saturdays can be used as a day of reflection and extra prayer time.

The Word does change lives, and at Journey onWord we are convinced that most Christ-followers want to read and study the Love Letter. Often in reading plans, there is a great start, but a slow finish. The “New Testament Year” reading plan for next year will give all of us a chance to read slower and deeper, while finishing the year strong. Join us!

As usual, it will be our practice to publish the reading each Saturday night (starting December 31^st) for the following week. We will also publish two articles per week (Monday and Thursday), generally focused on that week’s reading.

If you know of others who might want to join us, please share our website address … http://www.journeyonword.com. Encourage them to subscribe on the site, and take a journey in the Word with us.

Pilots and planes … God’s Word and power … Where is our faith?

The older i get – or maybe better said, the more i grow in my faith – the more the story of Christmas convicts rather than comforts.  i have always been a big kid at Christmastime (and i pray that never really goes away), but as my experience of the Christmas story grows, so does its challenge to how and where i choose to live my life.

Jesus was born into the margins.  Both in the specific setting and the larger narrative of His earthly life, the truth of His becoming one of us is far from the “cozy and comfortable” my life so often resembles.  It is far from the quaint picture of a young couple, peaceful barn animals, shepherds and wise men huddled around a manger.  Jesus was born into crude, not cozy.  His family was on the run not long after he was born.  As an adult, the Son of Man had “no place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).  And on His road to the cross, He endured the most inhumane treatment imaginable.  That sounds like a life those in the margins would be far more familiar with.

i have spent time in the margins (i wonder if it is more like the outskirts, than the true margins).  And i can certainly say they were shocking places … “shocking” in how much joy and gratitude is common to those places; “shocking” in how much i felt as though i was the one who received the blessing.  i don’t believe God judges my love and enjoyment of the sights and sounds of the season.  But i do believe He wants the ears of my heart to be tuned to how He is moving in the margins, and to respond wholeheartedly when He invites me to participate.

Several years ago, a friend stood up during a time of open invitation at church to share his heart for guests who would be arriving later that evening.  Our church spent one week a year hosting somewhere around 30 homeless men, women (and sometimes children).  In the course of sharing what God had so obviously put on his heart, he spoke words which i don’t believe i’ll ever forget.  “I encourage you to come one or more of the days this coming week and walk the halls and rooms of the church in the middle of the day.  I have, and I feel the very presence of Jesus when I do.”  He was speaking of a portion of the day when the treasured men, women and children were back at the warming center or out amid their chosen activity for the day.  I believe my friend was describing the extra measure of Presence that i also always recognized the week the beautiful men, women and children stayed overnight with us.  i know and believe the truth that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there, but i wonder how much more that might be true when that place is truly in the margins.

i have been in homes which display the impassioned words of the final sentence of Joshua 24:15.  When someone visits my home, they won’t see those words displayed.  But will they leave believing the words were true of us?  Does my home … Does my life … speak the truth of Who i love and serve?  Does it welcome those in the margins?  Does my heart hear their need?  Do my feet take me where they are when the call of God comes?

The truth of our dear Savior’s birth is a marginal one.  He arrived in the margins … and never left.  He did not choose the good fortune and comfort of a palace; He chose a trough.  He did not seek a secure pen and home pasture, but rather went out and perpetually searched for the one who was lost.

We see this scandalous and live-giving truth at the cross, may we also see it in the cradle.

Without a doubt, there is someone in your life who seems to live in crisis mode.  Seemingly every event or circumstance creates a new crisis. Often, even though you love the individual, the constant drama wears on you. In less dramatic ways, we all have daily moments of crisis which amount to nothing more than irritations or minor frustrations. But if we are not careful, those daily moments wear on our emotions and sap our spiritual energy.

Just last week I experienced some of the minor crisis moments. They came daily, and began to be a bit frustrating. Have you ever had a week that just seemed to be one event after another? We have to make a decision to not let the crisis erode the joy available to us in Christ.

My week started with a moment that will illustrate my point. I was helping our daughter get her car serviced (she was getting set to drive it to Tennessee). I told the service technician to let me know if anything major was wrong. A little later in the day he called and reminded me that I had asked for him to advise me on items that needed to be done.  The battery failed a test, the brake pads were low, the wipers were streaking, and the car needed an air filter. In one phone call our daughter ended up with a $957 repair bill … all from an oil change and a simple request from dear old dad!  And that was just the start of our week.

My point in focusing on the word crisis was intentional.  Irritations from last week (both mine and yours) were probably minor at best, but there is a serious crisis that Christ-followers are confronted with constantly. It is a crisis of belief.  It is interesting to me that the Greek word for crisis means “decision.” Whether major or minor, the crisis’ we face will call for decisions to be made.  Henry Blackaby states it well in his book, Experiencing God, by saying that a crisis of belief is “a turning point or a fork in the road that calls for a decision. You must decide what you believe about God.”

Reading the Word can cause a crisis of belief. In reading, we are confronted with the truth and our responses will reveal what we really believe about God. Will we obey the principles and trust God in that moment?  Or will we trust our feeling and logic in a crisis of belief moment?  An easy example, and one we have all faced, is forgiveness.  We have been hurt (sometimes deeply), and have a choice to make. Obey the Word and truly forgive, or trust our own logic and carry a grudge.  Obeying and forgiving is always the right decision.

We are also confronted when there is a definite prompting from the Lord. We know He is leading us to witness, show care, change jobs or obey an assignment.  We have a decision to make which, again, shows what we really believe about God.

I was profoundly impacted recently when reading about Moses in Exodus chapter four.  God wants to use Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and meets Moses in the form of a burning bush (chapter three). Moses struggled greatly with the assignment and his own confidence.  After hearing clearly from God, Moses’ protest angers God.  The words of Exodus 4:13 have resonated with me… But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”

My first thought is, “How could Moses protest with God like that?” But, in all honesty, when God gives you and I an assignment, those same words often flow through our mind. Moses failed to believe God in a crisis of belief moment. And so have I!  We can’t fix the past, but we can choose to believe and obey in the opportunities God has chosen for our future. The real question is, what do we believe about God?

Exactly one week ago tonight i was reclined in a hot tub, staring up at a pitch black sky littered with stars.  i was overcome with awe and an overwhelming sense of smallness as i took in the full expanse of the canopy.  “Who am i?!” echoed in my heart and mind.  “Who am i that He should take notice of me?!”  As we take time out on this second Sunday of Advent to quiet our hearts and minds and orient them in the direction of the birth of Jesus, I would like to suggest a bold and boisterous answer to that essential question.  The words are not mine.  It is the answer i hear from the still, small Voice within me as i consider the narrative of Jesus’ birth (and then life, death and resurrection).

God is just.  Sin demands a ransom.  There will be a window where a lamb from this world will pay that price, but it cannot always be so.  There is only One whose blood carries the power to forgive every sin and every sinner.  And in God’s plan, that One, Jesus, had to become one of us in order to fulfill that purpose.  There was no other way.

i was in the mind’s eye of the Almighty as He decided on a plan of redemption even before speaking all of creation into existence.  You were too.  That plan began with a birth.  Unto us a child was born, unto us God’s Son was given.  There was much yet to do.  Birth was not enough.  But “enough” was not possible absent that holy night when Christ was born.

Why did God willingly choose separation from his Son?  Why did Jesus willingly choose to obey and offer His life as a ransom for ours.  Because He loved me, and because He loved you.

For more than one reason i’d love to go back to reclining in that hot tub.  If i could, i would be quick this time to hear the bold and boisterous answer to my question.  Who am i?  i am His child!  i am His child because of a cradle and a Cross.

You may call me silly for the amount of faith I exhibited on a business trip.  It was an incredible move on my part!  I walked on to a large airplane, sat down and went from Ohio to Florida. You may be thinking, “that’s not faith, that’s what anyone would do.”  However, I had never met the pilot, had no clue about the mechanical efficiency of the airplane, and didn’t know when it had last been serviced.  But I settled in and with great trust, drank my diet soda.  Isn’t it amazing how much faith we have in others (even pilots we have never met), yet how little we trust in God and His infallible Word?  We live in a culture that gives lip service to prayer, and spouts biblical clichés without really spending time in prayer or trusting the biblical principles we know.  So who should we trust – pilots and planes or God and His Word?

My thoughts landed on faith when a line from the book Leading on Empty (by Wayne Cordeiro) jumped off the page at me.  It was further cemented in my memory bank in reading and thinking about Mordecai and his cousin Esther.

“Faith is living in advance what we will only understand in reverse.”

Sometimes you and I are in the position of needing to trust a clear principle from the Word.  At other times, it may be that we are challenged to simply trust the character, power and love of our Lord.  He knows our situation, and has the ability to see us through.  However, the issue of living our faith in advance is counter-intuitive.  We all struggle with living by sight and not by faith.  Living by our own strength will cause us to miss the joy of understanding what our faith accomplished in reverse.  

Reading the book of Esther fascinates me.  It reads like a best-selling drama, and shares with us the story of God sparing the Jewish nation from extinction.   I have been profoundly struck by the providence of God in ordering the events of this marvelous book of Scripture.  When it comes to living faith in advance, Mordecai passed the test.  When everything looked bleak, he absolutely trusted in God’s covenant with Abraham that He would not allow the Jewish nation to perish.  It may be easy to speak words of faith, but Mordecai was in a critical situation and proclaimed that God would bring relief and deliverance to the Jews.  I am confident that as he looked back at God’s deliverance he was able to understand more fully the ramifications of his faith in reverse.

Esther was placed in a royal position at a critical time for the Jews.  She enlisted prayer and fasting on her behalf and then stepped out in faith.  Esther realized that the consequences of her decision to intercede with the king on behalf of the Jewish people could be death.   Again, I am impressed with how someone could live out their faith in advance at such a crucial time.  Without a doubt, she could have self-talked her way out of going before the king.   But on the other side of the Father’s deliverance, I can imagine the joy, and thankfulness she felt at she looked at her faith decision in reverse.

Our dilemmas will probably never reach the depth of difficulty that Mordecai and Esther experienced. But today, tomorrow and next week, you and I will be faced with choices that cause us to either live out our faith or seek to control each and every circumstance.  And if we decline to live out our faith in advance, we’ll miss the joy of understanding its ramifications in reverse.  Oh, what a loss that would be!

If you and I can trust unknown pilots in planes we know nothing about, we can certainly trust the God who hung the sky in space and gave us His Son for redemption?  If you have accepted Christ as Savior, live out your faith in advance.  If you are unsure of you relationship with the Savior, please reach out to us at Journey onWord.

Yesterday you received an invitation.  I wonder if you noticed.  Amid the hustle of the holiday season, possibly as you took to the highways and bi-ways to return home from Thanksgiving visits, Almighty God himself invited you to pause — to pause, look and listen in the direction of a cradle.

For the past several years at Journey onWord, we have called attention to the season of Advent.   Each year It seems increasingly important to offer the contrast between the trappings and timelines of this world and the intentional practice of quieting and orienting our hearts and minds on the birth of Christ.

If you were to have your eyes checked today, what are they focused on?  Is it the people, places and things of this world, or the purposes of the kingdom?

If you were to have your pulse checked today, is your heart rate resting or racing?  What, and who, is it beating for?

As genuine followers of Jesus, we are called to “come out from among them and be separate.”  This truth from 2 Corinthians 6:!7 is spoken in the context of ceremonial purity, but i believe there is application in this very present and practical place as well.  What kind of witness can we be if we choose to reject the trappings and timelines of this world?  If we choose to live out the “feelings” of charity that seem to swell in this window in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but amount to little more than medicating what desperately needs deep healing?

What if we truly chose to “come out from among them and be separate”?   These questions are not deep.  This challenge will take little time to read or digest.  But, what if?

In a little less than a month, we’ll gather together as families and communities of worship to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Along the way, many will be quick to lament or confront our culture’s efforts to take Christ out of Christmas.  But what if we quietly and genuinely took it on ourselves to put Him back in?  Not for the purpose of being right, but for doing good (for others).  Not to save the world, but to show it His love.

Yesterday you received an invitation.  Have you already, or will you begin now to take time each day to read God’s Word, pray, and obey His prompting to “do the good things he planned for [you] long ago”? (Ephesians 2:10b NLT)  Will you begin orienting your heart and mind in the direction of the cradle?  Will you see in the story the posture our King takes in coming to earth to become one of us in order to save us?  Will you choose that posture yourself in loving others as He first loved us?