Psalm 73:25-26 (NASB)
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The wife of a couple we have known for over 20 years died this week after a long illness. The husband wrote to his friends that he was both happy and sad. Happy that his wife was with Jesus now, but sad that they were apart here on earth. It is times like this that we ponder the issue of pain and often ask God why His creation is the way it is.

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors, but he is also the most frustrating to read. His writing is clearly organized, but his words require many stops to contemplate and fully digest them. As I was reading his book, “The Problem of Pain” today, I was thinking about our friends. Eternity comes to the front of our thinking when friends and loved ones die.

In the book, Lewis was describing the concept of Divine Goodness, the attribute of God that He is love. He rightly noted that often our concept of God as a God of love is that we substitute the word love with kindness. Kindness is our desire. But, love is much more complex; it is more stern and wonderful than kindness.

Lewis further describes our relationship with God. “God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being.” God is completely unlike us, yet He knows us better than even a husband or wife of decades. The Psalmist reflected that in the verses above. Even when there is pain, He is our closest ally.

Father, I pray for our friend today. He is your child and I know You love him. I pray that Your love would surround him and be the strength of his heart in the coming days. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Acts 9:11 (NASB)
11 And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying,

Ananias, in a vision, was being instructed by God to go to Saul of Taurus to lay hands on him, to return his sight. In this instruction, he was also told that Saul was praying. Saul’s entire world view had just been turned upside down. He now knew that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus was the Christ, that Jesus was his Lord and Savior.

He had much to pray about. Saul, a devout Jew, was not a stranger to prayer. But this time it was different. His prayers were now to God with whom he had a personal relationship. This must have led him to praises and thanksgiving for he was now a child of the living God.

He also had much to confess. He not only had rejected Jesus, but he had personally persecuted many who believed in Him. He was present when Stephen was stoned to death. His actions as a zealot had led to many deaths. That life was over, and he would now live for Jesus, no matter the consequences.

This was a picture of true conversion; the new person Paul had become, being born of God. It isn’t different for any of us, if we are truly part of His kingdom. When we think about our life before Jesus, it naturally draws us into prayer. Prayers of praise, of thankfulness, of confession. It draws us closer to Jesus, which we crave with each beat of our hearts.

Heavenly Father, what joy it is to be Your child. What a blessing it is to know Jesus. Praises to You, my Lord and Savior. May Your kingdom come Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

James 4:6 (NASB)
6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

My pride masks the fact that humility is not a conscious act of the will. True humility starts with a belief that any good deed that we do is the result of God working in us. That true belief then becomes an unconscious reflex controlled by the Holy Spirit, so that we no longer consider any opinion of ourselves as worthy of thought. We don’t expect to find virtue in ourselves because there is none, only the virtue that comes from Christ within us.

Trying to make ourselves good will only lead to frustration and failure. It is often the action of a Christian who forgets that our very faith is a gift from God and not something that we created in ourselves. Jesus is humble and only He can transform our hearts into that likeness.

We can become humble only when we release our will and submit to God. We can’t work at being a Christian; only by responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It can be a most difficult attitude to adopt, yet it frees us to let God direct us in all that we do. When we do, our opinion of ourselves becomes unimportant and pride dies.

Heavenly Father, I pray that would fully submit to You, follow You, and forget about my opinion of myself or what others may have of me. I am weary and want Your rest for my soul. I pray that pride would die and that only your Holy Spirit would live in me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,

John 14:1-3 (KJV)
1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

It was the summer of 2013. I was headed to my 45th High School class reunion, to a rural farming town in southeast Kansas. I was looking forward to catching up with former classmates, but I also planned to stay over one more day and attend services at the church I grew up in. I entered the church that Sunday morning. The church seemed much smaller than I remembered. There were no sounds of children laughing like it was when I was young. The average age of the congregation looked to be older than me and there were at most 30-40 people attending. The church was like the town; worn down. As I took my seat in a pew near the front of the church waiting for the service to start, I prayed that Jesus would be there and it would be a great worship time.

A couple of older ladies were sitting behind me. One of them asked me if I was new to town. I explained that I had attended my class reunion and wanted to come back to the church that morning. They asked me my name and I told them. Several rows back, a man asked if I was related to Morris and Arlene. I said that they were my parents. What happened next was so unexpected. My mother had died in 1980 and my father had moved from our home town to live the rest of his days in Arizona about a year later. That was 33 years ago. Yet most of the people came up and told me how much my parents had meant to them. Many of the women had attended bible study with my mother. Other stories were told about the kindness and help that they had been to them over the years. Jesus was there that day and it was a great worship time.

Fast forward to the summer of 2018. I was headed to my 50th reunion and I planned to attend church that Sunday as I had done 5 years before. On Friday when I arrived in town, I ran into a classmate and her husband. Cheri had attended the same church growing up and so I told her about my experience 5 years before. I could tell something was wrong when she said that I probably had not heard. It turns out a couple of years before that, the church had a 50 year celebration following the building addition that was done when I was a young teen. They opened up and shared the contents of a time capsule that had been buried in the cornerstone of the church. But it was also announced that the 3 churches of the same denomination would be consolidating into one church, a different building on the other side of town. The three churches simply didn’t have enough attendance to support three pastors. That was the last time services were held there.

The verses in John 14 above were favorites of my mother. It reminded me that this earth will not last, but that Jesus has a place already prepared for us. A mansion ready for us. And that He will come again to bring us there. Even as the physical churches of old worn out towns close down, He brings us to mansions that will never perish.

Father, thank You for that one last worship time in my hometown church. Thank You for the many blessings that you provide on this earth, but most of all the amazing blessings that we have to look forward to. I pray this in the matchless name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Psalm 19:14 (NASB)
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

It’s Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise.
Chorus from the Praise Song, “Great Are You Lord”

A.W. Tozer once said that the gospel is received by someone in only two ways – either the word without power, or the word with power. It has nothing to do with the person that shares the gospel, how they share it, how great the technique, or the eloquence of the speaker. It only has to do with the person receiving it and whether God has prepared their heart to hear it with power.

I have come to realize that whether you use an evangelism technique taught in books, whether you share a pamphlet or not, or especially if you are an eloquent speaker or not makes no difference. In fact, if you focus on those things rather than just pleasing God with your words and thoughts, you run the risk of beginning to believe that you had a hand in the outcome. Keeping a tally of “our” success in winning over others is sinful pride.

It is God’s breath that is in our lungs and we use that to form words from our thoughts. If we only focus on pleasing Him, then that is all we need to consider. Sharing the gospel doesn’t need to be a specific task we do, but rather how we live our lives for Christ and interact with others.

Father, forgive me for taking your command to share the gospel and expecting favor from You for what I have done. Believing only comes through Your grace and the faith that You provide. Help me to use Your breath in my lungs to speak words that honor and please You. Holy Spirit, whisper to me thoughts that I will meditate on day and night. Use my words only in a way that brings You glory. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,

In the late fall of 2006, I awoke one morning after having a very vivid dream. It was so powerful, I had to write it down. That Christmas, as our family gathered on Christmas Eve, I read the story to them as one of my Christmas gifts that year. It’s been 12 years since I first wrote these words, but I thought I’d share it with all of you this Christmas Eve of 2018.

A Shepherd’s Christmas Story

“Welcome… Please come in; you must be Benjamin’s friend. I am his brother and a shepherd like him. Welcome to our home. This is Mary, my wife. It’s Mary who works to put this gathering together every year; my part is to tell the story.”

“Did you see the man that just left as you were arriving? His name is Luke. He is writing a story about the good news and wanted to know what had happened in Bethlehem. I told him about that part, but you’ll hear the rest of the story in a few minutes.”

It was always a great time when family and friends came. Although many had heard the story before, more were always invited each year. The shepherd had to be cautious, because he knew that the Roman government would not like what he was doing. Even so, he realized that this was something important to do. There were things that he had seen in his life that needed to be shared. Once he was gone, he wanted others to remember.

“I think everyone is here now, so let’s all gather for prayer. Mary just gave me the signal that the food is ready”

“Father God, bless this food and this time together with family and friends. May your hand be upon us and may the story that I share be pleasing to you. Protect your chosen nation, the one that you brought out of Egypt so long ago. Teach us today about your wonderful plan for all of our lives. Amen.”

The meal was simple and enjoyed by everyone. But it was the fellowship of family and friends that nourished them even more. Many attending lived several days travel away and this was the only time each year that they saw each other. They came to hear the story.

The shepherd stood and everyone knew it was time. The small room in the house became very quiet as he gathered his thoughts and began the story.

“This is the story of my life. It is also the story of another man. He changed me and I hope he will have an impact on you as well.”

“It all started many years ago, as I was working the flocks at night. I was learning about shepherding from my father, who believed that a Jew must earn the right to tend the flocks during the day. It was easy work most of the time; the sheep would bed down as the sun set and would sleep most of the night. The only thing we really had to worry about were wolves. And then only when it was a new moon. But even that had changed a few months before. A large star had appeared right over Bethlehem and the night sky was as bright as day.”

“Then one special night, suddenly an angel appeared in our midst. It happened so quickly; we all thought we would soon be dead. But in a voice that we felt more than heard, he told us to be calm. He had not come for us, but to tell us of a wonderful event. A baby had just been born in Bethlehem and this baby was the Son of God! And the baby would be found in a stable lying in a manger! Then around the angel appeared many heavenly creatures singing praises to God and blessing peace on earth to all men to whom God is pleased. In an instant the angels were gone.”

“I knew exactly what we had to do. We had to go to Bethlehem. We left the youngest of our group to watch the sheep and the rest of us went to town to find the manger. When we arrived, we were surprised at what we saw. In the stable with all of the animals around, we found the mother and father and a baby. The mother’s name was Mary, just like my Mary. She was so young. She looked at me with both joy and sorrow and I didn’t understand what that meant until many years later. The proud father, Joseph, told me the baby’s name was Jesus. As I approached the manger, I was filled with the need to hold him; me, who had never held a new-born before. And in the instant that I touched him, something changed. Just as the angel told me, I believed that this baby would save the world, but I didn’t know how or why. I looked over in amazement at Mary. She smiled and nodded at me, knowing what I was thinking.”

“The other shepherd boys and I left the stable committed to tell the world what had happened. Some listened and believed, but many did not. After several days we became discouraged and went back to our lives tending sheep. It would be 30 years before I would see Jesus again. I often wondered if I ever would.”

The shepherd paused a moment to wipe tears from his eyes. It was obvious that he had a close and personal relationship with this man called Jesus. The family and friends waited and listened as he returned to the story.

“I first saw Jesus again when he came to our synagogue and performed a miracle. He healed a sick man. I got to the synagogue just as he departed and I followed him that day. He went to the home of one of his friends and healed a woman. Late in the day, many people were arriving at the house with all kinds of ailments and diseases. I saw Jesus heal them all.”

The shepherd went on to tell about the many times he had watched Jesus and had seen his power. The miracles and teachings he witnessed were amazing.

“It would be about three years after seeing him in the synagogue that I heard Jesus had been arrested by the Romans. I decided to go to Jerusalem and see him, because I knew that he would save the world and he would break their chains and save us all. But when I arrived, it was too late. I was told Jesus had been taken to Golgotha to be crucified. As I rushed to the site, the sky went dark and it was difficult for me to see. When I finally got there, I found him on a cross, bloody and barely alive. I tried to walk up to get close to him, but the Roman soldiers kept me away. Tears were streaming down my face. How could this happen? How could I have been so wrong? I fell to my knees and as I did I heard him say: ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit?’ …And then he just – died. Jesus, the one who I knew would save the world.”

“I stayed there and wept for hours; even after they took him away to be buried. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. The next couple of weeks were a blur. Finally I realized there was nothing more for me in Jerusalem, so I started back home.”

“I was a broken man and I wasn’t sure what I would do when I got home. The life of a shepherd seemed empty to me now. I felt like God had played an evil trick and was punishing me – and not only that, I was mad at God. Jesus was my savior and now he was gone.”

“I stopped on the road to rest for awhile, my head spinning from thoughts of his death, when a group of men walked by. One of them stopped, looked down on me and said, ‘Why are you so sad? I thought you believed in me?’ I looked up and saw the face of Jesus. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The one who would save the world was standing right in front of me. How was that possible? How could he be here? I saw him die.”

“Then Jesus reached down and took my hand. All sorrow and pain left me and I smiled at him as I got up. I walked with him and his disciples for the rest of that afternoon. He told me that he would be leaving soon to be with God the Father and that everything would be alright. I finally understood that he didn’t come to save us from the Romans, but from our own sin.”

“What God foretold through Isaiah has come true. ‘For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.’ God’s Word became flesh. He was born many years ago on this day of the year. He lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose again to prove that He, Jesus is the Son of God.”

“So that is my story. I’m one of the lucky ones. I saw his birth, I saw his ministry and miracles, I saw him die, and I saw him alive again. It’s easy for me and a few others that saw these things to know that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. For the rest of you, you’ll have to believe it by faith. All you have to do is ask God and he will give you the faith you need to believe. Surrender to him and you’ll see, just like I did.”

The shepherd sat down, his story over for this year. Family and friends got ready to leave, promising to be back next year to hear it again. And he would continue to tell it each year until his death.

Time passed – several hundred years, and the shepherd’s story was long forgotten. But the story of Jesus lives on – His birth celebrated, His death mourned, His sacrifice embraced. His Kingdom will last forever as He reigns over all.

Merry Christmas.

Matthew 9:2 (NASB)
2 And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the story of Jesus and the paralytic who was brought to Him by friends of that man. Jesus used this as an opportunity to show us that forgiveness is far more significant than healing.

Yet, what is the subject of many of my prayers? Do I give forgiveness the priority or do I pray for healing of self, family, and friends? Have I really understood just what a gift the forgiveness of my sins and sins of others is in the scheme of things? Without forgiveness of sin, we are lost for eternity. Assurance of forgiveness and daily repentance of my sin is much more important.

But, there is nothing wrong with asking for healing. Jesus healed. Jesus heals even today. It is just a matter of priority, which is why Jesus responded to the paralytic the way He did. The man who was healed went away praising God. I wonder if he understood what it meant to be forgiven as compared to the wonderful healing that he was also given? I hope so.

Father, I praise You for the gift of forgiveness of sin. Help me to keep it in proper perspective with the other prayers that I bring to You. May it always be your glory that is the motivation for my prayers. May my repentant heart always be in my thoughts as Your grace and mercy covers my undeserving soul. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,