ONE DAY AT A TIME

While I was a student at Johnson Bible College, I ministered week ends with Calfee’s
Chapel which was located on the old Bluefield road between Bluefield and Princeton, West Virginia. It was over 200 mile trip one way.  Rufus Peer, only boy who had a car, would load we preachers up and drop us off at preaching points along the way.  I was the last one to get off.  Rufus would unload me at the Trolley Station in Bluefield and I would ride the trolley to the Gap where there was the church building and a grocery store. I would stay with church people, preach morning and evening. Then, Monday start the trip back to college.  I did this for my last two years of college.

I want you to meet one of my church friends.  His name is Mark Saunders. He was an alcoholic.  He would drink anything that had the content of alcohol in it. We had lots of interesting conversations about his habit. I was with him when they carried him to a sanatorium in Virginia to be dried out. When he came home, he shared with me his terrible experience.  He told me that he could never touch another drop of alcohol.
Even when his cronies urged him to drink with them, he would tell them, “not today, maybe tomorrow.”  Each day he had to deny his cravings. He had to learn to “LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME”

This statement, “one day at a time” is not simply the secret to Alcoholic Anonymous, IT IS THE TEACHING OF CHRIST..  Jesus said it like this, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Isn’t Jesus saying, “one day at a time?”

The two most difficult days for us are yesterday and tomorrow.  Yesterday because we keep dragging in the skeletons from the past.  Tomorrow because we try to cross bridges before we get there. We must learn from the past or we will relive it in the future. However, we can’t live in the past, it is gone.  Learn from it. We can’t live in the tomorrow, but we can live for tomorrow.  That is, we must have a tomorrow to live for today.  So the past has value and the future has promise.
We must learn to live in the present.  Dr. John Dorsey said, “We live in an explosion of now’s.”    Now is all we have.  Make it count.
Determine with the Apostle Paul, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”   Philippians 3:13.

TURN YOUR EYES ON JESUS

A chorus we sing is, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His marvelous grace.”
How appropriate this is for Christmas. Jesus should be the center of our attention. We must not allow anything or anyone to cause us to take our eyes off Christ and the real meaning of His birth, death and resurrection.

In 1495, Duke Ludovico of Milan asked the Florentine artist Leonardo Da Vinci to portray the dramatic scene of Jesus’ last supper with His disciples as they gathered in the upper room before His crucifixion. The scene was to be painted upon a large wall of the dining hall at Santa Maria Delle Grazie monastery in Milan. DaVinci, then 43 years old, agreed to take on the assignment. Working slowly and with great care for detail, he spent three years completing the painting. The disciples were grouped in threes, two groups on either side of the figure of Christ, who sat at the center of the table with His arms stretched before Him. In the right hand He held a wine cup, painted with marvelous realism. At last, the painting was ready and DaVinci called in a friend to see it.
“Give me your honest opinion.” DaVinci said.
“It’s wonderful” the friend told him in open admiration. “That cup is so real I cannot keep my eyes off it.”
DaVinci immediately took a brush and drew across the sparkling cup, “If it affects you that way, it must not remain.” he exclaimed. “Nothing shall distract attention from the figure of Christ.”

Christmas is here and we are in danger of losing Christ in the midst of all the celebration. Jesus must be the center of our attention. Jesus is the heart of our attraction.
Enjoy your Christmas but do not forget THE REASON FOR THE SEASON. It is all about Jesus coming to earth in human flesh to seek and to save the lost..

I want to wish for you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. Celebrate all you want to but don’t forget the meaning of Christmas. Don’t lose sight of the love of God that sent His Son to earth in order to reconcile us to Himself. I love all the lights at Christmas but remember that we as Christians are the light of the world. We need to turn on the light of the life of Jesus in us so the world will see Him. TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS AND CELEBRATE THE REAL CHRISTMAS.

“CHRISTMAS IS AMAZING”

What makes the celebration of Christmas so unique? What is there about Christmas that is so amazing?
It is the incarnation. That God would enter into this life that we live. That eternity would appear in time. That somehow the Creator would appear in creation in such a way that men’s eyes could actually see Him. It is beyond comprehension that God could and did become a human being through His Son, Jesus.

William Barclay suggests that the 14th verse of the First chapter of the Gospel of John might well be the greatest single verse in the whole New Testament. Listen to it again: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
This indeed is the verse for Christmas. This is what Christmas is all about, God in flesh.
The truth is more staggering when we realize that Jesus becoming flesh meant He took upon Himself all the weakness of man. We are so concerned that Jesus be seen as fully God that we forget that He also was fully man. Why would He condescend to become like us? Hear the Scripture: Though He was rich, He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9

Philip’s question, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us” is our question too. Jesus’ answer was: “Any one who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
What do we see in Jesus? We see GLORY. The glory of Jesus is the presence of God.
We see GRACE. Undeserving love is shown in Jesus. God’s favor, limitless kindness, mercy is shown in Jesus.
We see TRUTH. What is truth. Truth is a person. Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

A Kentucky mountaineer made a journey to see the Grand Canyon. He looked at that Grand Canyon in amazement. He had never seen anything like it. There it was: 217 miles long, 18 miles wide and over a mile deep. In total disbelief, he shook his head and said, “Man, some thing awful big happened here.”

We come to Bethlehem. We hear the announcement of angels and common shepherds. We are amazed when we learn of the life that was lived by this small babe born in a manger. We can’t help but shout with the Kentucky mountaineer, “Man, something awful big happened here.” IT’S CHRISTMAS, GOD WITH US IN JESUS.

“OUT OF THE STORM”

I was impressed by this story told by Preacher, Joe Ringwalt.

One snowy Christmas Eve, the wife was taking the children and attending the church service. She asked the husband to go with them, but he refused saying, “That Christmas story is nonsense. Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That is ridiculous.” So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

Outside, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Suddenly, he heard a loud thump against the window. He checked and could not see anything. He went outside, and there he saw a flock of wild geese. They got caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm without food or shelter. A couple of them flew into the window and that was the noise he had heard.
The man wanted to help the geese, so he opened the barn door hoping that they would go inside. But, the geese just fluttered around aimlessly not realizing what it could mean for them to go inside the barn. He tried everything he could think of trying to get them into the barn where they would be warm and safe. He thought to himself, “Why don’t they go into the barn where they can survive the storm?”
Finally, he thought, “If only I were a goose, then I could save them.” He went inside the barn, got one of his own geese and carried it in his arms, as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn – and one by one, the other geese followed it to safety.  He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind, “If only I were a goose, then I could save them.”

Then, he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous.” Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like those geese; blind, lost and perishing. God had His Son become like us, so He could show us the way and save us. He fall to his knees in the snow and prayed his first prayer: “Thank you, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm.”

Here is the Christmas story: “And the Word was made flesh,and dwell among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
It seems rather foolish for us not to come in out of the storms of life when God has provided shelter and safety in Jesus. With the Psalmist, we declare: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

TURN A CESSPOOL INTO A GARDEN

Pastor George Chen spent 18 years in a prison work camp in China. Because
he came from a background of moderate wealth and opportunity, the guards
at the camp worked hard to break his spirit and indoctrinate him. He was so
hungry at times that he was tempted to eat toothpaste. He was separated
from his wife and his young church. While he was in prison, his wife died.
One of his greatest hardships was that he had no privacy to worship, pray,
read, or memorize the Scripture. He was under constant surveillance.
Frequently, he prayed that God would allow him a place of privacy so he could
enjoy fellowship with God.
Soon the prison officials gave him a new assignment. In order to break his
spirit and indoctrinate him further they gave him the most difficult work
assignment in the camp. They assigned him to the camp cesspool.
The sewer pit where he worked serving 60,000 prisoners. His assignment was
to scoop out human waste to be used for fertilizer. No one else wanted the
job because it was lonely and repulsive, and they feared deadly diseases.
His heart was broken when he went to work on his new assignment. Day after
day working in the foul pit he wondered if his prayers were heard.

To withstand the hardship, he would sing, pray, and quote Scripture aloud.
One day it occurred to him that his assignment was a specific answer to
prayer. Because he worked in such a foul cesspool none of the guards would get
anywhere near him. He worked completely alone. He could pray, sing, and
quote Scripture as loud as he wanted! He began to thank God and rejoice.
There was no one there to hear him but his faithful God. His cesspool
assignment lasted six years, and miraculously he never contracted a disease
from it.
When he was released, He traveled to poor villages where he saw the
hand of God at work. He represented the cause of the suffering church in
China around the world.
Speaking before a huge missionary conference years later, he told the story
of God’s faithfulness to him in prison. With bright eyes he spoke of the
fellowship that he enjoyed with the Lord in the prison cesspool. Standing
before the huge crowd, the small Chinese pastor began to sing the song that
he used to sing in the prison sewer.
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses …
And He walks with me and he talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
Pastor Chen had learned that the secret to rejoicing is not perfect
circumstances, but a consciousness of the presence of the Lord Jesus. “… In
his presence is fullness of joy …” (Psalm 16:11).
When you are discouraged by difficult circumstances, misunderstanding,
pressures, responsibilities, or outright persecution, rejoice! The presence of
Jesus can turn a cesspool into a garden.

Copied from Lighthouse Baptist Church newsletter.  Thanks, Bobby Awtrey