Happy New Year!

I can't think of a better foundation on which to enter 2009 than this:

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

David Bowie and Bing Crosby

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:1-4

Without Jesus

I heard a Christmas song the other day that lamented, "It won't be Christmas without snow." I've been guilty of that very sentiment. I wonder, do we think the same thing about Jesus? Do we think, "It just won't be Christmas without Jesus?"

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Matthew 2:1-2

Evidence of Christmas

Barb Harwood and Nick Flatoff photos

My family and I recently had the privilege of accompanying some sisters and brothers in Christ down to Chicago to visit the Pacific Garden Mission. Some of you may have already visited this beacon of light in a hurting world, and if you haven't, I highly encourage you to go. You can check them out at http://www.pgm.org/

While there, we heard about the history of the mission and testimonies from men who are currently staying there. I say men, because 80% of the residents there are men. We then went on a tour of the new 150,000 square-foot facility, constructed just over a year ago. The mission itself has been serving Chicago since 1877. The mission is completely run on donations and takes no money from the government. They want it that way so that their main purpose--bringing souls to salvation--will never be thwarted. And salvation truly is the main goal at PGM. I was heartened to hear that they even turn away many book donations because they are not of sound Biblical doctrine.

Yes, they feed the poor: 3 meal servings a day, totaling an average of 2,353 meals per day (each one preceded by a church service). Yes, they offer basic medical care and clothing. Yes, they provide beds for an average of 850 people a night to sleep in for as long as a person needs. (all in a green certified building with lots of windows. The dorm we toured looked out onto a treed courtyard while the John Hancock building towered in the distance.) But the mission unabashedly repeats, over and over, that their purpose in all of this is to bring souls to salvation through Jesus Christ.

Many who come to PGM participate in the drug and alcohol recovery program. But even then, we were told, it isn't about "the program." It's about Jesus Christ, the Gospel and being born again. That is the true mission of PGM and they are sticking to it, with 1,384 people expressing faith in Jesus Christ last year. Also last year alone, twenty-eight people graduated from the one-year Bible program and five PGM graduates are now enrolled in Bible colleges.

Our visit also included sitting in on the live radio production of "Unshackled," which dramatizes true-life stories of lives transformed through Christ. In production since 1950, "Unshackled" is the longest running radio drama in history.

Finally, we ended our day with an evening meal in the mission cafeteria cooked by men and women who are graduates of PGM and who went on to culinary school and are now chefs. After dinner, we attended a two-hour worship service! Yes, two hours and it flew by!

As we drove home, I was so encouraged by yet another example of a herculean effort by true Christians to bring the Word of God alive through action and through the preaching and teaching of that very Word. They are proof that when you do both, everybody wins! Jesus Christ is the foundation: without Him there would be no program, no beds, no recovery, no hope, no graduation into a better life and no salvation.

I wonder how many other missions just like this go unnoticed by the world as they quietly but heroically live out the call of God. And I am motivated to apply some aspect of the mission in my own hometown.

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." James 2:26

Joy to the World

I've been going through boxes of old stuff, finding everything from my kindergarten report card to oodles of notes written by my best childhood friend. And then I came across my 1976 public junior high school Christmas concert program. Here's the wording on the front:

Ben Franklin Junior High Music Department presents A Christmas Concert

Underneath those words is a drawing of two church bells decorated with a bow.

I opened the program and read the listing of songs that were sung: "Who was Born," "Japanese Christmas Carol," "Christmas Bell Carol," "Christmas is Here," "English Carol Dance," "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Carol of the Drum," "Carol of the Questioning Child," (acted out by a boy playing the child and three girls playing angels), "Bethl’em Lay a-Sleeping," "Cradled in a Manger," "Do You Hear What I Hear," "Joy to the World," and "Silent Night."

At the bottom of the inside of the program is the salutation, "Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

If the PC police had been out and about back in 1976, this concert would've never happened. Let me ask this question: are we any better off as a nation, culture or society because we removed the singing of Christmas carols from our public schools and stopped calling Christmas, Christmas? Are we better off today than when students sang these songs in 1976?

"Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: 'The Lord knows those who are his...'" 2 Timothy 2:19

Black Friday

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power." 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Mark this: Black Friday fits the bill.

The people who stormed the 5:00 a.m. opening of the Wal-Mart at the Valley Stream Mall in Nassau County, New York, tearing the doors off their hinges and stampeding a man to death, loved only themselves and the chance to save a buck. They were proud, abusive, and disobedient to their parents who, I hope, at one time told them to be polite and wait your turn. They were certainly ungrateful for the employee who showed up in the early morning hours, working to put food on his table. The fact that the throng was unholy in attitude and action is without question. The fact that a man died in a rush for first dibs on a plasma TV is proof enough that these shoppers had no self-control, were not lovers of good, were treacherous, rash, conceited and lovers of pleasure. The fact that they continued shopping as the man lay dying is brutal.

The South Jersey Courier Post Online reports:

"When (store employees) were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling "I've been in line since yesterday morning,"' Cribbs said. "They kept shopping."

Brutal. Conceited. Without love. Having a form of godliness (shopping for Christmas) but denying its power. Giving themselves completely over to their sinful nature. And if you don't believe in sin, then please explain what you would call this.

Matthew 16:26 asks, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"

"Jesus wept." John 11:35

Jesus is our Hope

Thanksgiving is over and what's known as the "Holiday Season" is bearing down upon us. This can be a difficult time for people for a variety of reasons: the painful memories of a loved one who is no longer with us; a strained relationship with someone; struggling financially or physically; dreading holiday parties and gatherings, and the whole commercial shopping machine that comes with this time of year.

But there is a reason Christians celebrate Christmas. We celebrate because Jesus came into human history as a baby and grew into a man whose Words we can read in the Bible. He came to release us--now, while we live our days on earth, and later in eternity with Him--from bondage to pain, suffering, anxiety and every other sadness and disappointment known to man. Jesus knew these things too.

When noone else can feel our pain, Jesus does. When nobody else understands our frustration, He does. And only He can take us through it and out of it. He is the one who trains us up in the Way we should go. He not only sits with us in our brokenness, He makes us whole once again--even if our circumstances remain doubtful, even when relationships fall apart, even when sickness doesn't go away.

Jesus, being sent by God to die for us, has overcome the world. Because of that, someday we'll leave here and be with Him forever. But Jesus will overcome our own personal world too. Right here. Today. Now.

Let Jesus in to your Christmas. Let Jesus in to your life.

"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:5-6

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken." Psalm 62:5-6

"And hope does not disapppoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:5

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13