BORN OF THE SPIRIT

"Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell
where it comes from or where it is going, so
you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
John 3:8 NLT

Reflection:

Who died on November 22, 1963?
Most people would say, "President John F. Kennedy."
Do you remember where you were when President
Kennedy died. I do.
But another great man died that day, a man that
I so much admire. His name was C. S. Lewis.

His initials stood for Clive Staples, but to his friends
he was known as "Jack." Born near Belfast, Ireland,
in 1898, he was raised as an Anglican. But at the
age of ten his world was shaken when his mother
died of cancer. Jack wanted nothing to do with a
God so cruel as to take his mother. By his early
teenage years he had become an atheist.

Jack's spiritual pilgrimage back to God began in
1926 with a conversation with a cynical friend
whose belief in the Trinity challenged Lewis'
atheistic presuppositions.

Through the influence of various philosophers
he read and conversations with his intellectual
colleagues, including J. R. R. Tolkien, he began
to realize that an absolute Spirit or God existed
and that the events of the Bible had really happened.

By 1931, he had passed from merely believing in
God to trusting in him as his Savior.

In 1941, Lewis burst on the literary scene with
The Screwtape Letters. Books then began to flow
from his pen at an amazing rate.

C. S. Lewis is considered the most influential
Christian author of the twentieth century — quite a
leap from the atheism of his youth.

adapted from the The One Year® Book of Christian
History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale)
pp 654-55

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT(A)

Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalms 122:1-9;
Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

"So stay awake..." (Mt. 24:42).

There once was a small iron-working town
where the mills were kept running day and
night. The great steam-hammers, some of
them weighing several tons, were night and
day beating out huge masses of molten metal.
All night long the sound reverberated through
the streets of the village. But the townspeople
were so accustomed to the noise that they
could sleep soundly, despite the near deafening
noise. One night, the machinery broke down
and the hammers suddenly stopped working,
and nearly everyone in town immediately woke.
They had been awakened, unexpectedly, by
the silence.

"So stay awake... The Son of Man is coming
at an hour you do not expect," Jesus says in
today's Gospel Lesson (Mt. 24:42,44).

When would you least expect Him to come?
Could it be that you are so buried in the past,
dreaming about the way things were, or so
wedded to the future, dreaming about the way
things are going to be, that now is the time you
would least expect Him to come? But today is
the day the Lord has made. Today is the day
to be glad and rejoice in. Today is the day to
shut down the noise in your anxious hearts
and allow the blessed silence to awaken you
to the Lord's presence in your life.

Some of us may be bone tired here today.
Some of us may be ready to go to sleep.
But here is Jesus saying to us in today's Lesson,
"So stay awake! .... stand ready because the
Son of man is coming at an hour you do not
expect" (Mt. 24:42,44). This is the Message
of the Advent season. We are being called to
attention! We are being called to open our eyes
to what is going on in our Christian lives. We
are being called to a new awareness of the
reason for our Advent celebration.

We celebrate, first of all, what God our Creator
did more than two thousand years ago when he
changed the course of history by sending His
own Christ Presence -- the innermost essence
of His Loving Being into our world in the form of
a tiny Babe. Part of what this season is about
is the celebration of that Event. Already,
everywhere we look, we see the Christmas
cribs and lights and stars and candles and
other symbols of the birth of Jesus. And we
can rejoice in them. But Advent is also a
celebration of what God our Creator is doing now.
For of what avail is all this celebration if Christ
is not born in our lives now -- if we do not
prepare to receive Him in the Advent spirit of the
Gospels: the spirit of repentance?

THE SACRIFICE OF THANKSGIVING

Scripture:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.”
(John 8: 12)

There was an extremely old man, with a
number of health problems, to put it mildly.
He suffered from crippling arthritis. He was
losing his hearing. He needed surgery for
cataracts. He couldn't remember things.
He had high blood pressure. Disgustedly,
he said to his doctor, "I don't know why
God keeps me alive!" The doctor replied,
"I'm sure it is because He has something
in mind that He wants you to do." The old
man thought for a minute, then leaning his
full 97 pounds into the doctor and poking
his chest with a bony finger, he stamped
his foot and snapped, "Well, I'm not going
to do it!" Trouble and sorrow come into your
life. You feel defeated, abandoned, depressed.
Then someone says to you, "You ought to thank
God." "Well, I'm not going to do it, I don't feel
like it," you reply. Of course you don't feel like it.

Reflection:

How many times in your life have you had
something really bad happen to you. You
feel angry, unforgiving, depressed,
certainly not happy.
Let me ask you something, at that specific
time in your life do you want to thank God?
How in the world can you thank God in such
troubled times.

What we must realize, that is the exact point
and time we need to thank and praise God.
When it is the hardest for us, when it is the
costliest for us, that is when the spirit of
praise and thanksgiving can bring us into the
closest possible relationship with our Almighty
and Loving God.

His Son supplied us with the example=
Jesus' neighbors once chased Him out of town
and tried to throw Him off a high cliff. Jesus'
closest friends betrayed Him and deserted Him
in time of trouble. Jesus' body-sweat became
blood when He reflected on the sins of the world.
Jesus' compassion for the world propelled His
broken body up Calvary's Hill where He was
executed by order of His own people-and through
it all, JESUS NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER, CEASED
PRAISING AND THANKING GOD.
Jesus was the "Sacrifice of Thanksgiving" because
He knew that the Father would not abandon the
world. He knew that after the darkness there would
be light; after defeat, victory; after sorrow, joy;
after death, Resurrection.

THIS THANKSGIVING REMEMBER TO PRAISE
AND THANK GOD FOR ALL THE WONDROUS
THINGS HE HAS DONE!

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise:

(from Martin Rinckart's great hymn)

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hand and voices
Who wondrous things hath done
In Whom the world rejoices
Who from our mothers' arms
Has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.
AMEN!

BLESSED THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

WHAT ME WORRY!

Scripture:

"As a father pities His children,
so the Lord pities those who fear Him.
(Psalm 103:13)

Reflection:

One of the things I remember, as a
child, was my dependence on my
parents. Of course then I certainly
did not see it as dependance.
I depended on them for meals, clothing,
shelter, and certainly love. I assumed that
my parents would provide everything I
needed, and they did.

WE ARE GOD'S CHILDREN, WE ARE HIS
DEPENDENTS.

Jesus said, "Do not worry, saying, 'What
shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or
'What shall we wear.....But seek first the
kingdom of God.....and all these things will
be added to you" (Matthew 6:31, 33)

I believe that it is indeed unfortunate that
worry seems to be an ingrained habit for
most of us. Many of us seem to be
constantly worrying about situations
in our life. Added to this, the war,
with today's economy, with unemployment
among many of us. We have a lot to worry about.

Philippians 4: 6, 7 tells us----
"6 Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God. 7 And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
In other words don't be anxious, don't worry, let
God do the worrying! Give Him the burden. He
will take care of you. "Cast all your care upon
Him, for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)

NEVER FORGET: GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR
PROBLEMS. WHATEVER WORRIES YOU MAY
HAVE, PUT THEM IN GOD'S HANDS AND LEAVE
THEM THERE!

Prayer:

My Heavenly Father thank You for always being
there. I now give You my worries, I give You my
problems, I put them in Your hands and there I
leave them, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus Name AMEN

WHAT IS GOOD MEDICINE

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.

Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote 'Revelation 3:20' on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, 'Genesis 3:10..'

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' Genesis 3:10 reads, 'I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.'

Remember when the funniest jokes were the clean ones?

They still are!

"A CHEERFUL HEART IS GOOD MEDICINE"
(Proverbs 17:22)

NO LAUGHING MATTER

Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by
Les Lamborn

Scripture:
Read: Philippians 1:12-20
All who desire to live godly
in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution. —2 Timothy 3:12
Bible in a year:
Lamentations 3-5;
Hebrews 10:19-39

Reflection:

As my wife and I were walking through
a shopping mall, we came to a T-shirt
stand. While browsing the shirts and
their often humorous sayings, I noticed
one with a disturbing message. It read,
“So Many Christians, So Few Lions.”
That shirt, with its reference to the
first-century practice of throwing
Christians to the lions in the Coliseum
in Rome, wasn’t at all funny.

Persecution is no laughing matter.
Not long before those brave Christians
faced death in Rome’s cruel sport,
Paul wrote, “All who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). Persecution
is inevitable, and it should be a matter
of serious concern for all believers. In
fact, at this very moment fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ around the world
are suffering in Jesus’ name.

What can we do about it? First, we
can pray that God will comfort them
in their suffering. Second, we can aid
families left without support when loved
ones are imprisoned. Third, we can pray
now for courage should we face persecution.
When the apostle Paul was put in jail for
his faith, his courage led others to be
bolder in their witness (Phil. 1:14).

Want to encourage the persecuted church?
Pray. Then proclaim the message for which
believers suffer.

The church of Christ can’t be destroyed,
Though many enemies have tried;
Whenever persecution comes,
The church is spread and multiplied. —Sper

We find courage to stand when we kneel
before the Lord.

DOES ANYBODY CARE?

Scripture:

Psalm 142:4
4 Look around me and see.
No one cares about me.
I have no place of safety;
no one cares if I live.
Psalm 142:5
5 Lord, I cry out to you.
I say, "You are my protection.
You are all I want in this life."

Reflection:

One of the worst things about the feeling
of loneliness is that you have the feeling
no one gives you a passing thought,
nobody cares. You find yourself filled
with the thought that no one will help you,
that no one cares one bit what happens to
you. Well I'm here to tell you THAT'S NOT
TRUE. THERE IS SOMEONE WHO CARES,
JUST PRAY TO GOD. HE IS THERE FOR
YOU, that's right JUST PRAY. You will
discover, that through prayer, God is your
refuge and your strength. He is your place
of refuge. God hears your cries of loneliness
and is there for you. I mean He is really there
for you. Talk to Him make God a part of
your life. If you do this you will discover
that YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Prayer:

You teach, oh Lord, to obey Your commands,
and if we do, You assure us, "I am with you
always even until the end of the age. Thank
you God for always being there.

THE BEST OF TIMES

The other day I turned on the TV and watched the
news. What a miserable half hour. I felt pretty
good at the beginning of the news program
but by the time it was finished i felt terrible.
I was thinking why would anyone want to
bring a child into a world like this?
Then I remembered this quote from
Alistair Cooke.

IN THE BEST OF TIMES

“In the best of times, our days are numbered
anyway. So it would be a crime against nature
for any generation to take the world crisis so
solemnly, that it put off enjoying those things
for which we were designed in the 1st place:
the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy
friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to
bounce a baby.”
(Quote from Alistair Cooke)

THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR GRAND DESIGN.

GOD IS WITH US!

WORD'S TO LIVE BY

Here is some great words to live by:

1. Life isn't fair , but it's still good.
2. When in doubt , just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.
Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate , resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up
the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no
idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret , you shouldn't
be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But
don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful , beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the
second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life ,
don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles , use the nice sheets , wear the
fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion.
Today is special.
22. Over prepare , then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In
five years , will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is , it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is ,
not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone
else's , we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel , get up , dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow , but it's still a gift."

REMEMBER GOD LOVES YOU
HAVE A WONDERFUL LIFE!

ONE SUNDAY MORNING

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex
standing in the foyer of the church staring up at
a large plaque. It was covered with names and
small American flags mounted on either side of
it.The six-year old had been staring at the plaque
for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood
beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good
morning Alex.''Good morning Pastor,' he replied,
still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is
this? 'The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial
to all the young men and women who died in the
service.'
Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the
large plaque. Finally, little Alex's voice, barely
audible and trembling with fear asked,

'Which service, the 8:15 or the 10:30?'