Jim asked in Sunday School this week what our favorite character was in the Christmas story-apart from Jesus. My first thought was Mary. For she was a young girl who when God showed up in her world, it wrecked the life that she knew, yet she embraced it as good. Some in the class spoke of the Shepherds, even Simeon. After having sat on that question a few days, I have come to the conclusion that my favorite for the time being is the Wise Men. And yes, I know they were NOT at the manger. But I think that is WHY I like them. Let me explain.

The Wise Men were men of great wealth. And upon the seeing of a star, the Lord compelled them to make a journey. A journey that took 2 years. They left life, family, job, house, safety and chose to follow a star that hovered over Jesus. They didn’t understand the importance of Jesus. They didn’t know the prophesies or the part they played. All they knew was they were driven to follow this star. The traversed much distance and were not deterred by the time it took or the distance they had to travel. They were not stopped by what they left behind. They faced much danger, including an angry king that threatened to them. They did not hide along the way, but stopped and pointed people to what they were searching for. And they didn’t stop til they saw Jesus.

When they got to Him, they had been on mission for 2 years, with nothing to show for it, but determination. They arrived at where Jesus was and were the first worshippers to bring HIM GIFTS. They came and worshipped, laying gold, frankincense and myrrh at His feet. They traveled two years, over much terrain and difficulty to worship Jesus and to offer Him the finest of offerings despite their lack of knowledge about Him, compelled by a love for Him. Now that is WORSHIP.

Would it be that we could have such determination and offerings in our worship of Jesus. Could this Christmas be filled with giving JESUS the finest and not allowing distance or those that might try to deter us-keep us from getting to Him. And when we get there…might we give our all.

Merry Christmas and SEEK HIM ONLY.

ALL FOR YOU

Enterprise: Jesus

Enterprise: like Jesus
This past weekend, we took a group of students on a weekend retreat to Chattanooga. After stopping in Atlanta for lunch, we loaded back up in the suburbans to continue our trek. When we started the car, however, all of the transmission fluid flooded out underneath the car. Immediately, we knew we were in trouble. With a car load of students and a destination to achieve, we had to make some quick decisions about what we would do. I hastily called Enterprise car rental, explained our situation and set up the rental of a van. Meanwhile, my husband began calling for a tow truck to get our vehicle back home. While we are handling the logistics of the crisis we were in, our students were entertaining themselves in the McDonalds parking lot. Under much supervision (lol), they spent the next 30 minutes trying get the drive through to recognize them as they jumped up and down in the drive through line or pretended to be driving a car and pulling up to the speaker. (it was quite funny-check my facebook for the video!)
Enterprise was quite accommodating to our dilemma. They REALLY do come and pick you up. While waiting on them to do so (only about 30 min) I was texting with a girlfriend who made great insight. So I decided to steal it, blog on it and send it out. The text read, “Enterprise is like Jesus, He meets you in the road where you are and picks you up.” What a cool thought.
When we are broken down in the middle of the road and in need, all we have to do is call and Jesus comes right to where we are, picks us up and makes us able to achieve the destination He has before us. He never leaves us or abandons us in our time of need.
Dec 31:8 "The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."
I don’t know where you are or what kind of dilemma you are facing. I don’t know if you are stranded in a tough spot with no way out or if you feel abandoned and forsaken in the midst of your trial. But I do know that Jesus is on His way… you have to do is call and He will come and pick you up.
ALL FOR YOU

kids get it

The simplicity of a child’s thinking always leads the way. I think our kids “get it”…the together that is. We were driving home and we pulled in the drive way and Nellie said…We’re home. The next few minutes the kids in my car had a discussion about whose HOME it is. That it is God’s house and that everyone is welcome at anytime. Cece says…this is our house, just like our house is your house. We are family.

I think this is a great example of childlike faith and belief…..it is only as we get older that this gets messed up. Kids don’t own stuff, they possess stuff. It is only when we get older that our possessions begin to own us. Kids understand that we are all in this together. That life apart is less and life together is better. They are always looking for reasons to be together. Why is it we grow out of this?
I hope our kids keep the same thoughts…we are family…what is mine is yours…it feels like home not because of an address but because of together. I love kids….

ALL FOR YOU

text

Have you ever missed a text message? I HATE THAT! Or perhaps you have sent one and the person never received it. I HATE THAT, TOO! I don’t know about your phone, but mine has a little check mark that appears next to the text message sent, communicating to me whether or not the message has been received or not. Sometimes my phone acts up and even though I am sending messages, they are not being received by the person I am sending too. And other times, my phone just stops receiving messages. I am kicking it with my friends, thinking, why isn’t anyone answering me. My feelings get hurt. I begin to think they are all ignoring me. (all 2 of them…lol) And then I realize, my phone isn’t receiving the messages. So, I power it off and try again. Most of the time that fixes the problem.
I am sure most everyone has experienced the same frustration I have with a phone. Text messages are the wave of communication that many prefer these days. So, when that is messed up, we feel isolated and frustrated. We want to be able to GET our messages.
And yet, I can’t help but think that Jesus feels the same way. Yeah, I know you know that He sent us a TEXT message called the Bible. Not really a new illustration these days. But here’s the deal for me. Perhaps the problem is with us. Somewhere along the journey, we stopped receiving the messages. He has been sending, wanting to get a message in our inbox, but there is no check mark next to our name because we stopped receiving.
What if we all were as excited about getting messages from God as we are about our inbox? I mean let’s be real. We sleep with our phones. We wake up in the night to text. We can’t go through a meal with out checking to see who texted. And while many think that is odd…those of us die hard texters know it is because we want connection with those people so badly that we don’t want to miss out on a moment or a message.
What if we began to desire that with our Heavenly Father? A connection so badly that we don’t want to miss one message. We can’t make it through the night or through a meal without waking or stopping to check to see if He has sent us a message. To make sure we didn’t miss out. To make sure that we are still receiving and don’t need to reboot.
Perhaps, today you might get a message from Him…if you open your inbox and look.

Doxa, Christy
ALL FOR YOU