"For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done."

                                                                  Matthew 16:27


Churches all over the world will begin their formal preparation for Christmas this weekend in what is called Advent.  The word means "appearing," so you can see why getting ready for Christ's first appearing came to adopt the name.  The Advent Season is one of of joy and repentance, focus inward and outward, and an emphasis upon both the first and second comings (or advents) of Jesus.

Historically, the first week of Advent begins with a study of the Second Coming of Jesus.  The first and second comings are inseparably linked in the Scriptures and you cannot properly appreciate one without the other.

Much will be said and sung about Christ as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem during this time, but many miss the fact that the manger's baby was also God's Righteous Judge!  It will be good for all of us to remember that God has built an accountability into life......you might say that in life, there WILL be a final exam!

The Second Coming, among other things, means that our lives will be scrutinized.  Our avoidance of reality and denial of the large and small repercussions of our actions will be ended.  The Judge of all the ages will render His judgment of our actions and words.  We MUST live our lives with this fact in mind!

One reaction to life is to "play it safe."  We can allow our fear of failure to rob us of great service to God and great accomplishments.  We need not fear the view of the Great Judge, for He knows both what we've done and why we did it.  We should live boldly and confidently, trusting His leadership and His grace to do His will.    We must not allow fear of failure to make Christ's judgment a sad commentary on a "life poorly lived!"

"Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things.  The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have." -- Louis E. Boone

As the week unfolds, ask God to empower you to live boldly and usefully in His service.  Don't allow fear to paralyze you.  Live in the knowledge that judgment is in the future and we do give an account.  As the ancient Apostle's Creed affirms, "He will come again to judge the quick (living) and the dead!"
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2000

"In everything, give thanks..."         1 Thessalonians 5:18


"A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues."        --- Cicero


We're here once again: Thanksgiving Week in America.  As the week begins, thoughts of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings are filling the television on numerous commercials.  Many people are planning yearly trips to the homes of relatives where extended families will gather for their annual gastronomic blow-out.  Children are drawing pictures of Pilgrims sitting down with our country's Native Americans for the first Thanksgiving feast.  Smells of pumpkin pies, pecan pies (my own favorite), and the spices of the season are filling many homes.  Yes, it's Thanksgiving time and we're already anticipating a sumptuous feast.

Why, even in military mess halls around the world (now dubbed "dining facilities" in the Army), cooks are beginning to prepare to go all out in preparing one of the most wonderful meals served during the year.  Ice sculptures will enhance the tables, shrimp cocktails and other delicacies will be interspersed with the most creative food carvings, and in many Army facilities, at least the senior officers and NCO's will serve in the mess lines.  The extended military families and their guests will enjoy a feast to be remembered!  As if that were not enough, they will stay up late into the night to enjoy the football games of the holiday.  Somehow, the spirit of thankfulness will invade every home and heart as at no other time during the year.

For myself, I always recall Thanksgiving 1989 in Berlin, Germany.  The Berlin Wall had just been breached days before, and we were all living in the history of the moment.  As we gathered for our Thanksgiving Day dinner in our mess hall, I offered a Thanksgiving Prayer for the blessings we enjoyed as Americans and Allies in that place.  Joining the 6th Battalion, 40th Armor that day were some of our British and French counterparts, along with some of our German friends.  The facility was decorated first class and the cooks literally beamed with pride.  The first wave of soldiers and their families made their way through the mountain of food served by the Officers and senior NCO's of the unit.  The trays were heavy with all the food on them, and children had to be helped get them to the tables.  Yes, the staff had done a superb job and everyone was in a festive mood.

Suddenly, the door opened and a bedraggled and bewildered group of people were ushered into the festivities.  In an effort to share in the blessings of the day, the U.S. Command, Berlin (USCOB) had decided to bring some East Berliners to each of our mess halls.  As the breach in the Wall was just made, these East Germans were still living in the threat and fear of the Allies.  The lies told them for years still resonated in their minds.  However, they did get on the buses sent for them and now they joined their former enemies for Thanksgiving.

In stark contrast to our Dress Blues, Mess Blues, and coats and ties, they were disheveled.  Confusion and fear registered on their faces.  When the German instructions were given to them to get their trays and enjoy all the food they wanted, they began haltingly at first to go through the mess hall line.  Eyes widened as they saw all the decorations and food available.

Suddenly, an old lady dropped to her knees sobbing uncontrollably.  Some of the West Germans who accompanied them rushed to her and tried to help.  After a few moments of her bursts of sobs, she slowly rose and with difficulty continued to get her food.  She joined her East German compatriots at a table and began eating.

What was the problem?  One of the Germans assisting these Easterners told us that this elderly lady had quickly reached the limit of her ability to choose from among all the foods presented her.  In all her life since World War II, she had NEVER been in a room with that much food.  Therefore, she could not make choices because over the years she had rarely had any choices in what to eat!  The ability to choose was, for her, like an atrophied or paralyzed muscle.  It just would not work easily when needed.

I think in that moment I realized more than ever before what it meant to be blessed as an American!  I found tears welling up in my own eyes and I was not alone.  I quickly found myself a solitary corner and breathed a personal prayer of thanksgiving to God for the myriad of blessings I've received just because of the place of my birth.  Truly, we are a blessed people in this country!

I believe Thanksgiving  presents us with two significant challenges.  These are more than philosophical; they go to the heart of daily life.

First, gratitude and thanksgiving are more than holiday activities.  They MUST become our attitude for life.  An elder wise in the ways of life once said, "It is human nature to grumble at having to get up early in the morning -- until the day comes when you can't get up!"  Make this Thanksgiving holiday a renewal of your vows to says "thanks" to God and others who grace your life with good things and blessings.  Make gratitude an attitude for living.

Second, true thanksgiving will change the way we live --- it MUST do so if it is genuine gratitude.  Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, authors of How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, offer that "In Christianity, religion is grace; ethics is gratitude."  Let us all vow that we will renew our commitment to live our thanks in new and widening ways!

God bless you this Thanksgiving and throughout this next year.  We are indeed a blessed people.  Thanks be to God for His immeasurable gifts!
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2000

As the notes of patriotic music and the mournful tones of TAPS grow dim, we are reminded once again that the wonderful freedoms we enjoy as Americans were purchased by the incredible sacrifice of our veterans.  Through wars, police actions, conflicts, and national emergencies, our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines responded to the call of their nation.  It was never convenient, never easy, and never profitable.  Always, fewer came home than left originally.  Of those who returned, many sacrificed arms, legs, and horrible wounds.  All who tasted the sting of battle left a bit of themselves on the scenes of conflict.

In our frightful world, the freedoms we enjoy----freedom to vote for our leaders and the legal parameters that will govern our lives, freedom to worship the god of our convictions, freedom to rise according to our abilities rather than our connections, freedom of association, etc.----these are always under threat.  The world's tyrants, despots, and bullies all want to usurp our system and steal our freedom.  They always have and they always will.  What keeps them from doing it?  Simple: our nation's finest young people wearing the uniform of their nation and willing to pay any price to protect America's principles and people!

So----as this week progresses----when you enjoy  moving freely, and worshiping freely----thank a Vet!  You've inherited the privilege....someone else paid the price!  Make the way you live your own way of saying, "thanks!"

As you live this week, give thanks for your faith by living it.  Worship God by doing His will.  Pledge yourself to your faith and faith community by passing your faith on to others.  And remember: There are little white crosses, tablets, and gravestones around the world standing as a silent witness that once there was an American in that place who believed in our freedoms.  Live them, uphold them, and pass them on.  Others are standing guard right now to ensure that you can do that!  Thank God!  And thanks to them!

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2000

"Moses answered, 'What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, The Lord did not appear to you?'  Then the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?'  'A staff,' he replied.  The Lord said, 'Throw it on the ground.'  Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.  Then the Lord said to him, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.'  So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.  'This,' said the Lord, 'is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers --- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob --- has appeared to you.'"   ----  Exodus 4:1-5


    One of the great challenges of life for people of faith is that we've been called by God to do things that exceed our natural talents and abilities!  Most of us keenly perceive that, and we join our friend Moses in making excuses why we simply CANNOT do what God wants us to do.  One does not have to lie to find good and evident reasons why he/she cannot accomplish a myriad of things that God wants done.  We're simply human beings, after all, and we DO have our limitations!

    Over and over again throughout the Scriptures, people were moved by God to do far more than they ever imagined.  One consistent quality they possessed is that they knew they were NOT up to the task and it exceeded their abilities.  In life after life and in one way or another, God asked the question, "What do you have in your hand?"

    Moses, as the passage indicates, had only a simple shepherd's staff.  It was very ordinary but strong wood.  Nothing remarkable or beautiful about it.  It was so ordinary and insignificant that no one would normally take note of it.  It was the same with young David --- only a sling and a few smooth round stones from a brook.  With Mary, it was simply a box of sweet smelling ointment intended to anoint the dead.  For one nameless young boy, it was only a lunch --- a few loaves and fishes.  The most simple things of life, however, are often the most significant --- IN THE HANDS OF GOD!

    You see, THAT is the real difference!  In our own hands, the articles and implements of life are merely ordinary.  However, when they are used by God in His service, they become extraordinary!  Loaves and fishes feed thousands, a sling and stones become mightier than a warrior's sword, and funeral ointment becomes a sweet smelling fragrance to a whole household and becomes a powerful prophecy of Christ's atoning death on the cross!

    What about you?  What's in YOUR hand?  God can use your voice, your gifts and talents, your simple efforts for His Kingdom to bring glory to Himself and to bring His touch to the lives of others.  The key is not any special quality you have --- the key is your willingness and availability!

    Put whatever you have in your hand and life into His hand and see the marvelous things He will do with you!   God does not want what you don't have --- He wants to use what you DO have!  Give it to Him today and throughout this week!

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in it's various forms." ---1 Peter 4:10

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2001

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."--- Psalm 1:1-2 

The following story came from the REMINDER, the newsletter of the First Baptist Church of Pascagoula, Mississippi.

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a new Jeep Cherokee advanced out of a cloud of dust.  The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Rayban sunglasses, and a YSL tie, leaned out of the window and asked the startled shepherd, "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one of them?"  The shepherd looked at the Yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered, "Sure!"

The Yuppie parked his car, whipped out his notebook, connected to a cellphone, surfed to a NASA page on the Internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, opened up a database and some 60 Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas.  Finally, he printed out a 150 page report on his high-tech miniaturized printer, turned toward the shepherd and said, "You have 1,586 sheep!"

The shepherd answered, "That is correct ... as agreed, you can pick one of my sheep."  He watched as the Yuppie made a selection, bundled it up, and placed it into his Jeep Cherokee.  Then he said, "If I can tell you exactly what the nature of your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" 

"Okay," said the Yuppie, "why not?"

"You are a consultant," said the shepherd. 

"That is correct, but how did you guess that?" asked the Yuppie.

The shepherd replied, "That's easy.  You turned up here although nobody called you.  You want to be paid for the answer to a question whose answer I already knew.  Furthermore, you don't know diddly about my business because you took my DOG!"


What is the moral of this humorous story?  It's the same one that was pointed out hundreds of years ago by the Psalmist:   you've got to be VERY careful about the people whose advice you seek and take!  History is filled with the pitiful examples of lives wrecked by bad advice and evil advisors.

The writer of Proverbs said, "For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisors make victory sure."  (Proverbs 11:14)  However, one must be VERY careful about those advisors!  Like the Biblical character, Job, we are all surrounded by "friends" who freely give us advice and counsel--- much of it bad. 

Be judicious about the advice you take and from whom you seek it.  And when you give advice, make sure it glorifies God, encourages others, and builds up faith.  Take the long look at things .... remember, "a man is praised according to his wisdom, but men with warped minds are despised" (Prov.12:8).

Oh, and one more thing .... in case you think I'm discouraging you from seeking advice, just listen to the words of the Proverbs one more time:  "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice."  (Proverbs 12:15)

God bless you as you give and take good advice ..... beginning with the Scriptures!

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2001

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior . . . " --- Isaiah 43:2-3


    One of the greatest plagues of our times is discouragement and depression.  It seems like these maladies afflict all the Hollywood stars, nationally known athletes, and many others of the "rich and famous."  Of course, all of us of the "not-rich and little known" are susceptible to discouragement, also!  Nothing will paralyze a life or throw cold water on a great dream like the dark cloud of discouragement!

    All of us have things to accomplish . . . even this week.  Most of us occasionally have a good idea, and some of us even have a really brilliant idea once in awhile.  The key to success often is someone who believes in the "idea person" and takes time to give a positive stroke.
 
    Young Henry Ford had an idea for an engine for the fledgling automobile, but it seemed no one believed in him.  Prevailing wisdom at the time said the automobile would likely be powered by an electric engine invented by the famous Thomas Edison.  Discouraged and on the brink of quitting, Ford attended a dinner party and described his idea to a nearby person at the table.  Edison was also sitting at the table.  When he overheard Ford's plans, he banged the table and shouted, "That's it --- that's the engine that will work!!"
 
    Years later, Ford said it was Edison's bang on the table and words that propelled his automobile empire.  All it took at his lowest moment was a few words of encouragement to keep him going to the final success.
 
    What about you and me?  Can we be the people God would use this week to bring encouragement to someone who needs it desperately?  Could we give a pat on the back of someone who just needs a few kind words, a prayer, or the reassurance that we believe in them?  God knows the human need for encouragement! 

The Psalmist said, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because You are with me!"  (Psalm 23:4)
 

"Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower. "--- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

   Make sure this week that you find someone each day who needs your encouragement.  Spur them along life's way.  Remind them that God stands by to be their help and strength.  You may just find out that by encouraging someone else, you are enriched, too!
 
God bless you as you practice what you know!