Luke 2:10
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."

I took the picture this morning. It is hanging just inside our front door. I love mistletoe!! Kissing is a beautiful thing. It is an intimate expression of love. "Greet one another with a holy kiss," says the heart of God. A holy kiss!! A holy kiss is never forced. It is freely given and gratefully received. I kiss my wife. I kiss my children. I kiss my grandchildren. I kiss my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

If holy kisses filled the world how different the world would be!! If every kiss that was exchanged was a HOLY kiss the nightly news would take on a much different flavor. 

Psalm 85:10
                Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other. 

This is one my favorite Christmas revelations in the Bible. This happened in Jesus. Love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace kissed each other. In Jesus we have absolute holiness. Righteousness! AND at the same time we have unstoppable love and peace! Because of Jesus, His coming, His death for our sins, we have all that matters. His righteousness is fulfilled instead of our doom sealed. AND we experience His love and peace! 

Where there is perfect righteousness we experience judgement because we are not righteous. Through Jesus righteousness kisses love and peace with God. 

Need a holy kiss? Jesus! 

For Unto You Is Born...Savior...Christ...Lord

Luke 2:10
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."

It feels like we live in a bad sad world. Killings on a mass scale like we haven't imagined. Yesterday the Chief of Police stopped by to help our church Pastors think about the unthinkable. "Lock your doors," he said. "On Sunday mornings!" Crazy! Isn't it?!! And then there are the scandals. A new nightmarish surprise every day. Not to mention those around the world who seem hellbent on killing us with a bomb or a missile or even a bus while we shop. 

The worse thing of all is we ourselves. Against the backdrop of pure perfection that is God, our smallest of sins look depressingly shameful. The brighter He is to us, the more nightmarish our sin.

Is it possible to feel joy and be excited about the future! Sometimes we get discouraged. Sometimes we feel the blows. But there is a strength and life and joy that Christ came to give us. He entered this mess and gave Himself so that we could be filled with His presence. He is life. He is great joy. 

That is why Paul wrote, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:8–10).

We are not crushed, not in despair, not forsaken, and certainly not destroyed. No matter what! Instead, through Christ in us, we are whole, joyful, experiencing Jesus and more than conquerers. 

Colossians 1:27
...God chose to make known...the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Grieving Yet Thankful

Grieving Yet Thankful

We are all grieving over the loss of life at First Baptist of Sutherland Springs Texas.  Innocent blood has been shed. Plus another murderer has fallen into eternal torment. I am writing these words the day after this nightmare. Let’s continue to pray for Sutherland Springs and its First Baptist family.

All day today I find myself grieving and yet thankful. Let me share some of the reasons I am thankful.

1.     The Lord Jesus. We have a Savior! We have a Savior who suffered. And we have a Savior who is Almighty God. He is both. He has felt the pain of heartbreak and cruel death. At the same time He knows the future as the timeless I Am. He has created a glorious future as One who has conquered. As the prophet Isaiah recorded God’s description about Jesus, He is the Prince of Peace and the Father. He is the tender, understanding loving Counselor while at the same time, fierce Mighty God. He is a Wonderful holy combination.

Jesus came because killers kill and liars lie. He came because sin destroys. And He   entered that painful murderous destruction and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. He knows what it’s like to hurt. He is able to understand and heal. The One who is “acquainted with grief” is able to redeem.

2.     Jesus provided for the believers in Sutherland Springs in ways we can barely begin to imagine. They are with Jesus. They are breathing in Life. The pastor and his wife were out of town that Sunday. Their 14 year old daughter, Annabelle, was at church. She was one of the ones killed. I heard her mother Sherri say in an interview how grateful she was that her Annabelle loved her church family so very much and they her. The mother was thankful her daughter slipped into heaven with those she so dearly loved. I am thankful for heaven.

3.     Sunday afternoon several of our men met. They are used of God to provide protection for our church week after week. These are servants who are willing to die if need be for our church family. They are present each Sunday watching, walking, observing. They are faithful, wise, and capable. They are always about improving their watch care. I feel blessed and thankful to the Lord for them. Men who love Jesus are powerful because of Christ. We are in good hands.

Note to Self

Note to Self

Sunday mornings we are focusing on scripture where we find David singing a song to himself. In the song he told himself to do something. He also reminded himself of the good things God had done. He wrote the singing conversation down. He wrote the note to himself down because he wanted others to sing the same inspired song to themselves as well.

So we will. We will take our cues from holy inspired scripture, as written by a king who knows. There are some key demands we are to present to ourselves that make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!

Many times the battle is won or lost in our minds. If we tell ourselves something that is not true then we will eventually act on it. But if we tell our own souls the truth, then the truth will more likely be followed.

It is so easy to forget. “Prone to wander Lord I feel it” (Come Thou Fount). We are pretty good at forgetting who God actually is according to Scripture. We tend to forget His many blessings. If we focus our attention on a lie or forget “all His benefits (Ps 103:2),” we will lead ourselves in exactly the wrong direction, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

There is a direction we tend to always drift. It is a direction that denies our very purpose. It is away from the Lord, denying His goodness. It is toward trying to bless self in sinful ways. We drift because our flesh, the world, and Satan all work to pull at our souls.

Very, very, often we need to sit ourselves down and have a deliberate conversation with our soul. “Bless the Lord!” “Forget not all His benefits.”

There is much to say to our soul. The result will be AWESOME! It will be our theme the next few Sunday mornings at Troy First.  When “all that is within me” does this, there will be a purity of life and purpose that will empower everything we do. Hypocrisy will be gone. Our purpose will be fulfilled.

Germaphobe Cure

There is something I noticed after a few years of preaching. If I forgot to wash my hands before eating Sunday lunch, I would usually get a cold or something a few days later. All that brotherly love!! Love and germs go together. So I became somewhat of a germaphobe. Drinking after someone! No WAY! It got so bad that I wouldn't even drink after my wife. I would kiss her pretty good :) . But sharing a straw just grossed me out. I know. Crazy.

Over the years my germ hatred was tested. Five children. Millions of diapers. Throw up. On my face. And then there were mission trips. Holding naked babies in remote villages of Haiti and Africa. There was sharing meals with folks off the SAME PLATE. 

But something has happened. It is pretty much gone. The germ thing is gone. I think love has chased away my phobia. Love and germs go together. But love and phobias don't. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)  Love cured me. 

"Love and germs go together. But love and phobias don't."

We asked a family of four to stay with us while they built their new home. Over the months we came to love them like family. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table sharing a soda with one of them. Drinking out of the same bottle. Talking. Laughing. Wait. What??? I didn't even notice at first.

In Africa, eating with my friends has become a yummy joy! Even off the same plate. Love has made the meal an experience of togetherness of love. 

There is an amazing and even shocking conversation that Jesus had with someone (John 4). She was a Samaritan. Jews didn't associate with Samaritans. She was also a she. Rabbis were not supposed to share with women. She was also not exactly a moral person. She was at a well filling her bucket. Jesus was there too. Sitting. He didn't have a bucket. She noticed. She was also shocked when Jesus spoke. Even more by what he asked. Jesus asked her for a drink of water. Her water. From her bucket!!! From her cup I guess! Jesus drank after her. Germ alert! BUT love led to more than his physical thirst quenched. It led to her spiritual deadly dehydration being drenched with an eternal spring of the living water of Jesus within her. Forever. 

Love cured my phobia. And Love covers a multitude of sins. 

(Yes I still wash my hands after church). 

Sermon to Self

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6)

I suppose we all preach to ourselves. The question is, do we preach sermons to ourselves that are good or self destructive? Are they full of depressing ideas devoid of hope in Christ? Are they creepy sermons where we stalk ourselves with angry rationalizations of getting even with someone? Are they full of slanderous shame, void of gospel truth?

A good sermon to self is one that proclaims the greatness and majesty of Jesus. It is one that encourages a humble dependance on the Spirit of Christ rather than the futility of fleshly efforts. Good sermons to self are full of gospel truth. What is gospel truth? It is truth about Jesus, who is able to do in us and for us that which we cannot possibly do for ourselves. Gospel truth says, Hope in God, not in self. It says, Jesus is the vine, apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." (John 6:63)

What are you preaching to yourself? Biblically based sermons to self are sermons that consciously proclaim the truth of Jesus so that we humbly place our hope in Christ. This kind of thinking is more than just passive thinking, or even meditating on a verse of scripture. It is telling ourselves in no uncertain terms Biblical truth. For example, "you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11)."

This kind of sermon to self humbles us. It celebrates gospel faith in Jesus. It is powerful. Look for examples of it in the Bible. Look for words like "oh my soul," and "reckon," and "consider."

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:1-5 )

"As you come to Him..."

"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:4-5) 

Father, I want to come to Jesus, not just a few times a day, but continually - plugged in to Jesus like a branch to the vine, joyfully attached and worshipfully discovering more and more of the riches of Christ. I know many don't get Jesus but sometimes I live as if I don't either. So please give me the grace and wisdom I need to know how much I need to come to Jesus all the time. It's "as I come to Him," everything good that should happen will.