As Christmas 2024 is coming soon I want suggest that we reflect on the magnitude of God’s love before we get lost in the buying frenzy heading towards Christmas. It seems obvious to celebrate Jesus during the Christmas season, yet I fear so many of us will enjoy our kids, grand kids and relatives while we let Jesus fade into the background. Being purposeful about focusing on Jesus during this time of year can make all the difference in our lives as we prepare for a new year.

In the book of Romans Paul links everything in the Christian faith back to Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish nation. Abraham set the tone for trusting God even when he couldn’t understand his future. Trusting God is often a very hard concept when you give your heart to God because, like Abraham, we may not understand what or why God is leading us to do something or go somewhere. Faith and trust are linked together and if a Christian wants to please God we have to put our faith and trust in what God says just as Abraham did so many years ago. The pathway to a healthy relationship with God starts and continues with trust, in spite of a lack of information or revelation.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

At the foundation of faith and trust is the purpose He gives all believers to “Be a Blessing” to those around us. This idea of purposely being a blessing challenges us at the core of our self-centeredness and the Holy Spirit will work on this attitude all of our lives. Building our life around loving God and loving people are the two many principles Jesus talked tirelessly about. It often means giving up resentment and bitterness over offenses. Abraham understood that God was calling him to be like his Heavenly Father and we have the same calling.

Genesis 12:2-3

And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

God blesses mankind so God expects and directs us to follow in his footsteps. I am reminded of the scripture in the book of Matthew where Jesus is talking about loving not only your neighbor but your enemies as well. I confess this is a hard value and principle to follow but it is incorporated within seeking the kingdom of God directive. God implies that since He is perfect in loving people, even the bad ones, we should strive to love as God loves, even the ones that seem difficult to bless because of their conduct. God knows we are broken because of sin in the world and yet He still loves us as John 3:16 declares. Every time it rains it does so on both the good and bad among us.

Matthew 5:45

So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Let’s go back to Abraham. God shows him that the calling in his life is to be a blessing to those around him and impact the world.  God also says that Abraham’s greatness will be tied to that purpose. Since Abraham is our father of faith, we should follow in his footsteps and be a blessing to those we encounter in life each and every day.  It is certainly not always easy to do yet God promises us we will be blessed if we act as he does. It may be easy to bless those who seem to desire it or who are kind and generous to us but what about those who are unfair or cruel to us? That’s why having faith in what God says is often difficult to do. We must trust, even though we can’t always see the why.

After being freed from slavery in Egypt, Abraham’s brother Aaron was given the responsibility and privilege to be the head priest over Israel. If you look at the character of Abraham’s brother, he was anything but a solid believer in God and yet God chose him to set the example for Israel by verbally blessing them. Likewise, we may have come out of the world with bad habits and flawed character yet, as born again believers, we are now to order our steps like Abraham and his brother Aaron.

Aaron was given the calling to “Bless” God’s people and that same purpose is our calling.

Numbers 6:24-26

The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His faceshine on you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace

There are over 500 direct verses that speak to the importance this practice of blessing and being a blessing. The disciples of Jesus, when going out to preach and heal, were instructed to have this same attitude of imparting a blessing and even to verbally bless those they encounter.

Matthew 10:12-13

As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace.

Blessing others may not always be received with open arms but, in the end, our attempt to be a blessing to people we meet will impact the world around us. Today could be that day the Holy Spirit puts in your path a person who desperately needs your blessing. Will you be obedient to the call of God and be the light of God through your actions or will you sit on your blessing and close your heart?

Questions:

1) Do you purposefully try to be a blessing to others? If we are not intentional regularly, we will most likely fall into the rut of thinking the world around us is for our benefit only.

2) How do you prepare to be a blessing to others? Look at your own talents and endeavor to naturally be a blessing to others with your gifts. Don’t just do what others do.

Pastor Dale

If there is anything I have learned from being a believer with a bad past and pastoring people who have a past of brokenness and bad decisions, it is that we often mistakenly carry our past failures and mistakes into our Christian experience. With the extra baggage our transformation slows to a crawl, or only lasts for a short time.

Now, to be sure, I believe Christ changes us from the inside out. But we tend, if not always, to take with us some of our brokenness into this new life, often without realizing it. I can’t tell you all the lives I have encountered that struggle with things of their past that they never really got over even though they are bible believing Christians who read scripture regularly.

The question is: why would we contaminate our new lives in Christ with our past mistakes and woundedness? Let me say at the outset that many of these broken things in our lives are because we are ignorant of God’s truth about them, and because we refuse to identify them and own up to our need for change. A case in point is how many Christians have you met who believe in horoscopes and follow them, even after becoming a believer? How many Christians can’t seem to break their addictions they brought into their Christianity? There are so many cases in which people genuinely believe in Christ and yet stumble with their refusal to give up baggage from the past, and they think they can keep these things hidden from those around then when in fact people see the baggage of brokenness in us, they just don’t bring them up to us personally.

There is a story in the book of Acts that defines such a person who carried wrong motives and baggage that were logged in his heart even though he accepted Christ and was baptized. Some will try to make this man out as not being truly born again, but if we read scripture honestly without coloring it for our own comfort we will see the truth that he was born again but still brought the baggage of pride and witchcraft with him.

Acts 8:9 & 12-13

Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;

But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

The problem with Simon was that he was captivated by the adulation and praise of people. His baggage was pride and praise mixed with his addiction to witchcraft, and he brought these addictions into his relationship with Christ. None of us come to Christ without some hindrances towards transformation. It takes time and humility to expose and overcome these hundrances.

Acts 8:9-10

Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, This man is what is called the Great Power of God.

God has designed victory for everyone who accepts Christ, along with the power of three major elements to overcome the baggage we bring into our life in Christ. Here is the catch: it doesn’t happen automatically. They must be applied regularly and together. They are Scripture, Discipleship and the Holy Spirit. If any one of these, or all of them, are not applied regularly we most likely will become imprisoned and trapped in the addictions of our past again. Too often these assets of victory are underutilized because of the lack of sound teaching in the local church.

In Simon’s case he was so consumed with the tools of his former life that he could not get past the addiction to them. Christ does not reject us because of our baggage, but the road to recovery and wholeness will be harder, if not impossible, when we cling to such baggage. Simon just couldn’t resist his old ways and tried to bribe Peter for the power he had.

Acts 8:18-20

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!”

Getting saved and growing in Christ takes having the formula of real God-inspired discipleship, regular reading of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to work properly. Not giving up our old baggage often cripples us, even though we have experienced Christ’s love and forgiveness.

In Psalms 119:105 it states that God’s word is a lamp or light to our path but if we are not letting the revelation of God’s word reveal the path before us we stumble.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 that we are to go into the world and make disciples. He didn’t say build church buildings and teach sermons. We so often replace real one-on-one discipleship for sermons. Is there any wonder, then, that the average Christian has a spiritually stunted growth in God?

Jesus said in John 14:26 the Holy Spirit will teach us and remind us of what Jesus said. Without this help we are forced to figure out this Christian life on our own and we all have seen how that turns out.

God will expose the baggage we are either ignorant of or unwilling to give up simply because he loves us and wants the best for us. One of the ways he does this is by equipping the body of Christ so that through the gifts of the Holy Spirit these things can be revealed: like a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom or prophetic utterance. But if we, and those around us, are not led by and inspired by the Holy Spirit we walk in the dark, even though we have God’s word.

My advice is to bring your baggage, no matter how small or large, to the Lord and let him deliver you. Forcing God to confront us is far more painful. Let the love of God through the Word, discipleship and the Holy Spirit set you free from the past and keep you free.

Questions:

1) As you grow in God and his word are you being disciple? If not, why not? Don’t be like Simon who got saved and was still bound to his past.

2) Have you approached a person who is more mature than you are to ask them to disciple you? Make yourself vulnerable and be honest with a brother or sister who has demonstrated maturity, and ask them for help.

Pastor Dale

I have learned there are a lot of people who claim they hear from God or from the Holy Spirit who told them to do something, but often times it’s nothing more than justifying their own desire. It seems they just want to say it’s ok to do something they want to do and God’s voice becomes their “Rubber Stamp” of approval. Granted, there are people who do hear from the Lord but maybe, just maybe, there are more pretenders than practicers in the body of Christ than we realize.

Today we often hear in church that God wants to heal our broken heart but have we ever thought God might want our hearts broken instead? Is it possible that God requires a brokenness in our souls in order for us to be truly healed? In scripture we often get confused when understanding how and when God restores us and thus we may in fact fight against the process He designed for our own restoration.

When you read books about Christianity written before the 1900s, or even the early 20th century, they often used different words to described what a person coming to Christ should look like and act like. Generally, they did not use the word “SAVED” or even ”Born again” but rather they used a word like “Converted” to describe the change in a person’s life. Why is this important and and how should we look at our own salvation or the experience of others who have been “Born again?”

These days very few writers talk about the fear of the Lord because I think that they probably don’t understand the topic from God’s perspective in the scripture and because they think it is only an Old Testament concept which is outdated because Jesus came. So, is the topic useful to those who believe in Jesus or is it an outdated concept for Bible believing Christians?

Have you ever felt like God is not listening to your prayer? I know I have, and that feeling may not be wrong depending on the motive of our hearts when we pray, and whether we have kept short accounts with God regarding our sins. Although I believe God wants to hear us our own “Position” in life may deny us such access. Consider what king David wrote about God and his prayers, and see if you understand his insight concerning whether God is listening or not.

We are often told that fear is bad and there are a multitude of book & tapes on how to overcome fear but what if we are trying to get rid of something that is meant for our good? What if fear can actually enable us to succeed in life rather than fail?

There is so much to learn from the traditions and behavior of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.  Unfortunately, many Christians today neglect it, for various reasons, despite the fact that it can benefit those who truly want to be centered in their relationship with God.  Simply put, ignorance may hinder our ability to come closer to God today.