The Christmas Family

Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed of sinners—in fact, he even puts them in his family tree! Now if the Lord does that here, so ought we to despise no one … but put ourselves right in the middle of the fight for sinners and help them.   Martin Luther

We have looked this advent at how Jesus came into the world to save the world through a family that also needed saving.  My family and your family are no different.  Everyone and every family needs a savior and Jesus came to be that savior.  Today, as you gather with family, plan to be with family or remember your time with family ask the Lord to be the savior of your family the same way he was the savior to his family.  No matter what your family situation is, you have hope.  Jesus came out of a family that had liars, adulterers, a prostitute, a murderer and many, all in fact, who were sinners.  Picture in your mind all the generations together at one time at a family Christmas gathering – pretty scary, huh?  He came to die for all the sins of his family.  He came to die for the sins of your family so all of us can turn to God and know his forgiveness.  When we really grasp that, it becomes - no matter what is going on - the best Christmas ever.  We will finish up this series on Christmas morning.  I hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Christmas and Atheists

Christopher Hitchens, perhaps our day's most noted atheist, has died.  He is at least one atheist who will not be fighting nativity scenes in public places this Christmas.  Not that Hitchens would have bothered much with something as mundane as nativity scenes but many other atheists seem to think Christmas is a key battle ground.

In Santa Monica, California, churches have been placing nativity scenes in designated areas in a park for over 60 years.  This year atheist groups used a coordinated effort to book up almost all of the sites.  They not only kept nativity scenes out, they used them for their own message about the "myth" of Jesus as a real person.  The man who spearheaded the effort does not even live in Santa Monica.  Of course there is controversy over all of this.  It also helps the atheists get publicity.

But not all atheists are alike.  A new study found that 17 percent of atheists attended a religious service in the past year.  The most popular time for an atheist to go to church?  Christmas. Perhaps the committed atheists are trying to reach out to the less committed atheists to keep them from celebrating Christmas.

This week my wife Judith was speaking with a woman who was looking for the type of help that Perpetual Help Home (the women's ministry where my wife works) provides - housing, job training, spiritual help.  This woman had grown up in a family of atheists.   The family had fallen apart and now she was looking for help.  Judith explained the program to her and the mandatory spiritual element of being required to attend church if you get into the program.  The woman was interested in that. As they continued their conversation, Judith found this woman had recently begun to read a Bible that someone had given to her.  She was finding a love she said she had never experienced before.  As Judith explained the basic tenets of the gospel to her, Judith asked if she was ready to put her faith in Jesus and commit her life to Him. She said yes.  Now she is a former atheist.  Now she knows personally a love she never knew existed.  Now she has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for Christmas.

One of the things that is really hitting me this year is God sent His son into the world and made Christmas not just for Christians but for atheists too.

For the journey...

Tim

Adventageous

Advent + advantageous = Adventageous
There, you see I did not misspell my title.  I made up a word to make a point.  Advantageous means "giving and advantage" or "of use or benefit."  That is what Advent should be for the followers of Christ - advantageous.  For those of us who are life long Baptists, not familiar with candle lit, liturgical, historical church events, Advent is one we can embrace with out fear of giving up our spontaneous, Spirit led, saved by grace not by works style of worship and living.  Christmas, even for us, is about traditions.

My wife and I (along with some others) have been having "Baptist" conversations about Advent.  What is it?  What are we supposed to do in it?  Why should we do it?  I had thought about blogging on what I have learned, but after thinking it through, it didn't sound too exciting.  If you do your own research on the Internet you will find a wide variety of practices and changes in Advent through history.  By the way there was no Advent class when I went to seminary.  I doubt there is one now, so we are all kind of at the mercies of Google.

What I have gotten personally out of what I have learned is that Advent should be advantageous to us - of use or benefit.  It should do something to our heart and mind and attitude.  That is more important than what candle we light and why.  The best thing that I have found for me personally is this quote from Jan L Richardson from her book, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before...What is possible is not to see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you.  And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God's back fade in the distance.  So stay. Sit.  Linger.  Tarry.  Ponder. Wait.  Behold.  Wonder.  There will be time enough for running.  For rushing.  For worrying. For pushing.  For now, stay.  Wait.  Something is on the horizon.

That is what I want Advent to be.  That would be advantageous and be something of use or benefit to me.  I hope it will be to you too.

For the journey...

Tim

Degrees of Connection

In October, Facebook announced that the long standing idea of six degrees of separation between any two people was not true of Facebook's 800 million users.  Instead of six degrees, in the Facebook family it is closer to 4.  Within the same country, the degrees of separation between any two users is nearly down to 3.

How closely connected are we?  How close are we in the kingdom of God?  In the body of Christ?

Last night, I went to the family visitation of another pastor who had passed away, J. A. Munson.  He grew up in the same rural community that I did.  My father was influential in his coming to Christ as he worked as J. A.'s Sunday School teacher years ago.  J. A. went on to pastor through out Texas and in churches in several states.  Never in very big churches and often going from a larger church to a smaller church to help build it up.

One of the people that J. A. was influential in bringing to Christ years ago was Percy Jeane.  Percy now teaches Sunday School at Northside.  Percy and I talked about that connection again last night at the visitation. 

Six degrees of separation?  Four degrees through Facebook?  No, we are "all one in Christ."  We are more closely connected than we know or can see now.  Someday we will clearly see.  It  will be a wonderful day of discovery of our earthly connectedness in Christ that we only got glimpses of here.

For the journey...

Tim