There is a movie called “Leap Year” where a girl has been told by her father that on leap year Irish girls can ask their man if they will marry them, rather than waiting for the man to ask first. When this girl goes to Ireland to ask her man on leap year she encounters all kinds of crazy mishaps trying to reach her man who is in Dublin teaching a medical seminar. 

I started this series on the book of 1 Corinthians because the book shows so many of the pit falls the body of Christ can gets into when building local churches and how to resolve these problems. Each church building, in each town, is different even though they may claim to be Christ centered or have a cross on the building or have the name of Christ in it’s sign, but the true mark of whether the building houses Christ followers is whether or not Jesus is at the core of everything it does and whether it is what Jesus said he would build.

I witness to many Christians trying to live a life of faith in a lopsided way by just learning more and more information about God without actually changing how they live. When I became a true believer I knew I had to change not just my thinking but the way I was living my life. Now, 45+ years later, I am still in the same place…..learning and engaging in the changes that Christ compels me to.

The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and I hope it brought joy to your family.  I wonder, though, if we are more full of turkey or more full of realizing how blessed we are to know God as our Heavenly Father and Jesus our Savior? The freedoms we enjoy living with in America are amazing but our consumer culture always seems to leave us wanting more.  If we are more thankful, shouldn’t we consider reaching out to people with the love of God these next few weeks before Christmas? If God loves the whole world as the book of John 3:16 states, shouldn’t we have a deep concern for the world that Christ died for?

As Christmas 2018 is coming soon I wanted everyone to reflect on the magnitude of Gods’ love. It seems an obvious thing to do on Christmas Day, yet I fear so many will be enjoying their kids, relatives and loved ones that Jesus can actually fade into the background. Now I don’t consider myself a religious person but I do consider myself a spiritual person. I tend to look at life through the lens of spiritual meaning and that always leads back to Jesus and the Father’s great love for us as stated in the book of John.

During the Christmas season many stores, as well as individuals, burn candles that have amazing fragrances. These fragrances warm the heart of the people experiencing them and actually provide an “Attitude Adjustment” that’s healthy for body, soul and spirit. It’s a scientific fact that smells can change people’s mode and disposition without the person actually realizing it.  The question is do we take advantage of this fact and use the affect of fragrances during our interaction with people during the holiday season?

In the first Article on “Smelling Like Jesus” I talked about how “Fragrances” warms the heart of those who experience them, like walking into a store that has candles burning. That simple thing of a fragrance or a candle can and often does create an “Attitude Adjustment” in us. If people are grumpy from shopping or just the business of life during Christmas the stores that utilize fragrance have an advantage with their customers. I spoke about how Satan is very active during the Christmas season to get people so stressed out that they won’t see Jesus and the redemption story. In fact, Satan’s objective is to “Short Circuit” the spirit of Christmas and the hope God intends for humanity. The Holy Spirit wants to use the body of Christ to shine the light of Christ and the hope that the good news brings. If you haven’t read the first article please do so to get the full background before reading this portion.

I had intended to only write a three-part article on the meaning and application of sacrifice, but decided to add one more before moving on to another subject. This then, is the fourth and final part of this series on sacrifice so if you haven’t read the first three please do so before reading this one.

If you haven’t read the first article on the subject of sacrifice called “Sacrifice – At What Point Does It Matter”, please do so before reading this one.  I opened the first article discussing the sacrifice of men trying to find and save a solider called Ryan in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. The main premise is that sacrifice by both God and man should move us to respond by giving value to the one who gave.

Every now and then I watch a movie that stirs my soul in ways that causes me to reflect on the whole concept of sacrifice and what it means. I was watching “Saving Private Ryan” the other day and as I watched the older man playing Ryan, now old and walking slowly, it caused my emotions to swell because I remember his concern in the movie of whether he had lived a good life and was a good man. The captain in the end of the movie, as he was dying, grabbed Private Ryan and said “Make Your Life Count” because a whole squad of men had died to save just one man.  Some people don’t like war movies but this one spells out the great cost of victory.