An Advent of Joy!

An Advent of Joy!

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;’”

Luke 2:10

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

            One of the great gifts of Advent is the gift of joy found in Christ Jesus! Just as with many we find joy when we see an infant child.  We also find that same joy in Christ.  Sunday was a joyful time for us all as we watched the children’s program.  Children more than any other love the Christmas season!  They don’t worry about all the proofs of Christ and the message He brought.  They simply believe it and find joy in knowing that Jesus loves them.  Seeing their joy Sunday morning brought us joy as we watched them celebrate Christ who should be our source of joy.

            The shepherds, the night of Christ’s birth, were watching the sheep when an Angel from the Lord came and announced the birth of Christ.  A heavenly host sang of this great joy that had come to all men, stirring in the shepherds a desire to see this great Savior.  When they found the child just as the angel had told them, their excitement and joy went even higher.  They became the first evangelists if you will, proclaiming what the angels had told them.  They even went back to the sheep rejoicing by praising God and glorifying Him! 

            Finding joy can be hard for many of us at times in life.  Sometimes life can really be hard.  Yet it is God’s will that we be joyful.  That joy when life is tough, can be hard to find, yet we need not look anywhere but to Christ who was born in very humbling circumstances for us.  Sometimes when life has been hard the only joy I have is found in knowing that Jesus loves me and that in the end the Jesus will be glorified.  God is in control and when I just rest in Him there I do find joy!

            Kids can find joy in places that we don’t often find it.  Even in the hardest of times you can find them playing with their toys and laughing and having fun.  Growing up we didn’t have a lot and times were hard, yet to watch us kids you would have never known it.  We would just go outside to play and have fun each day.  We knew we didn’t have all that the other kids had but we still had so much fun and found such joy in what we did have.  We just blindly trusted our parents, teachers, society, God, etc. to always take care of us.  There was great peace and joy in not having to worry about the world around us.  Sometimes I find myself missing those days and, yet I find I don’t have to.  I can choose to have that same kind of childlike faith by just letting go and letting God take care of me. When you do that you find joy and peace.

            As we think of the first advent of Christ, His second coming can bring us great joy too.  We sometimes only think about the judgement of those who don’t know Christ and we miss the joyful part of being with Jesus!  Jesus will win the victory!  Eternal life will be ours in a place free of pain and suffering. Are we proclaiming the Good news of Christ this Christmas?  The best gift we could ever give someone is the joy that is found in the Christ child that will lead them someday to a life free of pain and suffering!  The joy that is found in knowing that God is in control and loves us!  That is the perfect gift this Christmas!

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

All Scripture is from  New American Standard Bible, copy-write 1995, by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA

An Advent of Peace

An Advent of Peace

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

“Peace I leave with you; Peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  John 14:27

            The second Sunday of Advent is a celebration of the gift of peace!  In the movies it often seems that someone gives a toast to world peace.  In a world full of turmoil, the desire for peace is strong.  Yet, do we every think about what might be waring in our own lives?  Many people today have lives that are full of conflicts family problems, work issues, personal problems, health issues, etc.   These conflicts and issues can take away our peace of mind and spirit and that alone can rob us of rest.  Jesus though brought peace when He came to earth the night He was born and that gift of peace we celebrate this week.  We can have peace with God this Christmas season.

            First, we need to understand that peace from God is different than that of the world.  The peace comes thru the work of the Holy Spirit.  In John 14:23 it says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”  The Holy Spirit is a part of each believer’s life and we should be in God’s word because that is how God through His spirit will speak to us.  To achieve peace, we must abide in the word of God and be obedient to what it says.

            Second, we need to learn from the word, just as what it says in Matthew 11:29-30 about taking on His yoke and learning from Christ.  The Spirit will guide us obedience and in learning. When we gain understanding about life or the struggles we are having we grow as people and there we can find rest which only comes through peace.  When, if nothing more, we understand that God is in control, we don’t have to worry about what is happening.  We can obtain the peace which leads us to rest.

            Finally, sin is a destroyer of peace with God.  Just as when we were kids most of our fights with our parents were because of our disobedience to them, it is the same with God.  I know that sometimes we are burned by things that are not in our control but how often were we heavy-laden by our own bad choices and wrong actions.  We need let these things go by taking on Christ, learn from our mistakes and know that Jesus is gentle and loving.  Jesus is waiting on you and is waiting on you to just let go, letting Him work in your life.  He will give you peace if you let Him.

            Last week I talked some about Jesus second coming.  Are you at peace with Christ that if He came today you would be ready?  You can be ready and at peace as it all starts with letting go of self and sin.   We miss so much because we just don’t love, honor, and obey Christ.  This Christmas give of your whole self to Christ, so you can truly say you are ready if Christ comes back today.

All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible. Copy-write 1995 by the Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA

Photo by Davidson Luna on Unsplash

Peace and Rest

Kruis, John G. Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling. Baker, Grand Rapids, MI. copy-write 1994

Advent: Hope of His Coming!

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.”  2 Peter 3:8

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” Rev. 22:12

            When we celebrate Advent, we are focusing our preparation for the celebration of Christ coming to earth.  It’s a time of expectation of the coming of Christmas.  With expectation there are five different aspects of Christ’s Advent, hope, peace, joy, love, and most important Christ, which we focus on.   This Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent the focus is on hope.  Hope means to place trust, rely.  This definition is an old meaning long forgotten but is true of the faith.  We like then, need to trust and rely on Gods word that just like the first coming of Christ the second coming will be in the same literal way.  This Advent season I think we need to take the principles of the first Advent and apply it to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

            The book of Malachi, last book of the Old Testament, tells us a lot about the people during the time between the testaments.  The book was written 400 years before the time of Christ.  He talks about the sins of the people of God, their spiritual leaders and to the sins in families.  When you read it, one can’t but feel how some of this has crept back into the churches today.  The message in the book is harsh and yet it was needed then, and we need it now, but we do our best at times to ignore it.  Within the 400-year period between the testaments the message was ignored and it only got worse.  By the time Christ did come the religion was not as much based on faith as on works and who you were.  Christ during his ministry would butt heads many times with religious leaders and it would one day “cost Him His life.”  Christ would then be raised to life again.

            There was great hope by the time of Christ that someday He would come.  The people didn’t like Roman control nor did they like any leaders that were placed over them. People were looking forward with great hope for the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to come.  Though many would someday reject Him, because of false understandings, they wanted a Savior.  When the Magi came in Matthew 2, the scribes even knew where the Messiah was to be born and understood many of the details about Him.  It is worth noting that even though the Magi pointed out the Messiah was born, the scribes didn’t go with them to find Him.

            Jesus came at just the right time as Gal 4:4 says “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son…”  When Christ second coming happens, it to will happen at just the right time.  Jesus tells us in several places like Rev. 22:12 that He is “coming quickly.”  How long is quickly?  Well 2 Peter 3:8 says “a day is like a thousand years.”  If someone says they are coming quickly they usually are not talking about years but days.  So, I am left to believe the same with Christ and, so I have to say it could be any day any time.  That leads to yet another question: Are you ready?  Few were truly ready the first time He came and, yet they were told He was coming.  We too are told He is coming.  Will we be ready? Don’t be like the scribes and religious leaders and not recognize what is happening though you know the truth.

            This Advent Christmas season let us fix our hope on the fact that Christ will be coming back!  The best gift we could ever give Jesus is our lives committed to loving Him with our everything, and to look forward to His second coming.  It may not happen in our lifetime, but it could.  Remember its been 2000 years so that is like 2 days to Him.

God Bless!

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Outline of Luke

Here is part of the Outline for the book of Luke that I am using to prepare my sermons on Luke.  It is from "Talk Thru the Bible."

Outline of Luke

Part One: The Introduction of the Son of Man (1:1-4:13).

I.            The purpose and method of Luke’s Gospel (1:1-4)

II.          The Events Preceding Christ’s Birth (1:5-56)

a.    John the Baptist’s Birth is Foretold (1:5-25)

                                         i.    Zacharias Ministers in the Temple (1:5-10)

                                       ii.    An Angel Announces the Birth of John the Baptist (1:11-17)

                                      iii.    Zacharias is Unable to Speak (1:18-25)

b.    Jesus the Christ’s Birth is Foretold (1:26-56)

                                         i.    Gabriel Announces Christ’s Birth (1:26-33)

                                       ii.    Mary Miraculously Conceives (1:24-38)

                                      iii.    Mary Visits Elizabeth (1:39-56)

III.        The Events Accompanying Christ’s Birth (1:57-2:38)

a.    The Birth of John the Baptist (1:57-80)

                                         i.    Elizabeth Gives Birth to John (1:57-66)

                                       ii.    Zacharias Prophesies of John’s Ministry (1:67-80)

b.    The Birth of Jesus the Christ (2:1-38)

                                         i.    Christ is Born (2:1-7)

                                       ii.    The Angels Announce Jesus to the Shepherds (2:8-14)

                                      iii.    The Shepherds Visit Jesus (2:15-20)

                                      iv.    Christ is Presented to the Temple (2:21-38)

1.    Christ is Circumcised (2:21-24)

2.    Simeon’s Prophecy (2:25-35)

3.    Anna’s Testimony (2:36-38)

IV.        The Events During Christ’s Childhood (2:39-52)

a.    Jesus Returns to Nazareth (2:39-40)

b.    Jesus Celebrates the Passover (2:41-50)

c.    Jesus Grows in Wisdom (2:51-52)

V.           The Events Preceding Christ’s Presentation (3:1-4:13)

a.    The Ministry of John the Baptist (3:1-20)

b.    The Baptism of Christ (3:21-22)

c.    The Genealogy of Christ thru Mary (3:23-38)

d.    The Temptation of Christ (4:1-13) (Boa 1980)

Bibliography

Boa, Bruce Wilkinson and Kenneth. Talk Thru the Bible. Nahville: Thomas Nelson, 1980.

Not Ashamed

Not Ashamed

By Pastor Thomas Carter

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”  Romans 1:16-17

            As a teenager, at camp meetings, I was challenged to carry my Bible on top my books and wear Christian t-shirts. At those meetings, many kids said that the speaker doesn’t know my school.  There were teens from my school who said the same thing, yet I felt lead to do that very thing.  My experience was not that bad.  I was laughed at by a few and even had my Bible stolen once but overall it was a great experience that even led to me getting to share the gospel with classmates.  I carried this idea into the job world by not being afraid to read my Bible on breaks and invite people to church.

            What is ashamed?  Webster defines ashamed as: 1. feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace 2.  reluctant or unwilling to do something because of shame or embarrassment. (ashamed)  I think the second part of this definition is what Paul had in mind when He said he was not ashamed of the Gospel. Paul didn’t hide or have reluctance despite the fact he had been imprisoned, chased out of places, laughed at and even stoned because of preaching the gospel.  The Gospel is a message of good news and power that would save people from their sins.

            Rome was the center of the world at the time of Jesus and Paul.  There was all sorts of pagan and idol worship taking place in that city.  This was the capital city of the world for Paul and the emperor or Caesar was in that city.  With all the political things that take place in a capital city and the many different beliefs and people type that would be living and passing through that city, Paul knew he would face ridicule, criticism, possible physical repercussion, and even death for that message when he reached Rome.  This would not stop Paul from his mission nor should it stop those in Rome from proclaiming the good news of Jesus!  They should not hide but boldly proclaim that salvation and eternal life is through Jesus Christ!

            What about us?  In today’s world do people know that you’re a Christian?   A pastor asked me years ago: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  In America, we have freedom of religion but that doesn’t mean we don’t face getting laughed at.  We fear that we might be laughed at or even be the center of the gossip.  We let fear drive us not the power of God nor the Gospel.  What is instore for those who never receive Jesus?  Are you truly going to be silent and let that happen?  The calling to share the gospel is to all of us.  How people will take that message we won’t know until we pray for them and we boldly tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.

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Christ is Our Advocate

Christ is Our Advocate.

1John 2:1,2

          In the beginning of this book we learned that God is Light and in Him there is no Darkness.  We learned to walk in the light not claim to be in the light.  Also, we learned that we still must fight the battle over sin in our lives.  The Apostle John opens the chapter by saying, “My little Children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”. 1John 2:1  As you can see one of the purposes of this letter is that we may not sin.  Sin is a battle we will fight for all our earthly life.  Walking in the light will lead us to confess our sins when they come up and will also help keep us from sin.  It has been said, “we are who we are around,” so if we are walking in the light we are going to be around others who walk in the light, and most importantly we will be in the light of Jesus.

          Yet, it also says, “if anyone sins.”  I as a human being would like it to say when you sin.  It’s easy to think that way because we all like to have the excuse for our sins.  The old saying of nobody’s perfect.  Yet, here John is trying to keep us focused on walking in the light which will protect us from sin.  We will have trouble with sin but it’s better to have a positive focus on it then negative.  Negative energy does cause us to be brought down and John is trying to build us up here.

          The New International Version of the bible does a good job of defining what an advocate is: “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense.”  When a person commits a crime, or breaks a law they often hire an attorney to plead their case before a judge.  The Father, here in this scripture, is the LORD.  The LORD is a righteous and holy judge.  Jesus, when we sin, speaks to the Father for us. He makes our defense.  To top this off Jesus is righteous too, like the Father.  What an amazing thought we are defended by someone who is righteous just like The Father is Righteous.

          Verse two says that “He Himself”, that is Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins.  Propitiation is the act of gaining ones’ favor.  Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  He paid the price for our sins to gain us favor with God.  He is our advocate and the payment for our sins.  This was done through His love for us that lead Him to the cross.  Ask yourself what does your sin look like to God?  When you see it how the Lord sees it you will understand better the Love of Christ.  This will also move you to walk in the light.  Even to do your part to not sin.  How much do you love Jesus?

Thomas Carter February 19, 2017