THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS

We live in a generation that loves to interpret the Bible in a way that fits their lifestyle. I have heard this a lot lately and even this week as I was talking to someone about the Lord when I was out running an errand. They said: “I just think God has such a sense of humor and that Jesus is displaying his sense of humor throughout the Gospels.” The notion being that Christ was a light hearted jovial Savior and wanted everyone to have a good time. We often don't have a clear picture of who Christ was because we often only see what we want to see.

Even at Christmas time, we tend to place an overly glorious emphasis on it. Certainly the angels proclaimed "Glory to God in the Highest," the shepherds came and worshipped that first night, and later - the wise men came from afar. Other that those three instances the circumstances around the birth of Christ were at best mundane, often straining, and even terrifying. Imagine, living in a day where you had to travel riding on an ass or even walking while leading one and end up somewhere with no place to stay and having your first child alone with no help in an animal stall. Think about fleeing to to foreign country because people were seeking to slay your child. Imagine how that scores if not a few hundred babies and children were killed in the town (Bethlehem) because they were looking for you and to slay your child.

These were the events that surrounded Christ's birth. But it was not just his birth - the Bible says that the Lord was "a man of sorrows acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). It teaches us that if we are to know His power, it comes not through victories and successes or through a jovial feel good positive attitude, but rather through "the fellowship of HIS sufferings being made conformable to His death" (Philippians 3:10).

Man has always tried to project what he wants God to be, making God in his image. But know that we were made in God’s image. Remember as we approach our Christmas holiday that Christ was not joking around when He came - but was sober and purposeful His time on earth. Remember that He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief - not the biggest personality in the room. He was making Himself of no reputation and seeking to serve not seeking His own following. A stark difference to what this generation is seeking to be.

Yes, the Bible says in Luke 2:14 that peace had come to man - but the peace here is not an absences of trials or struggles, but a peace on in the inner man regardless of the chaos that may be around. This peace can only be through repentance and faith in Christ and consistent walk with God. It is available to all of us - let's make sure we make it real in our lives.

- Pastor Mark Sage

Comments

YOU ARE TELLING ON YOURSELF!

Living in a culture that is constantly worried about self-image and self promotion, we are all consciously or unconsciously working at making ourselves look better and even sound better. I think we all do want to be better versions of ourselves and make nominal or all out efforts to improve. Many people (especially those who are trying to become famous or at least hope to score effortless income on the internet) are trying to make that image something even greater or tweak it to look or sound a little better. Often, in this effort, they are perceived in a way that is very unpopular in social media and then try to fix it. We have all heard of many being cancelled for saying what causes others to be upset. All but of few of these have come back and apologized for it with a statement such as: "The words that I used do not reflect who I am, what I believe, and what I stand for." God says, NO - THAT IS NOT TRUE. YOU ARE LYING TO SAVE FACE AND FORTUNE! The product of your lips

ADVERSITIES & CHURCH

After my devotions each morning I try to work on my memory verses. Today, in succession, two verses came up that relate a great and important truth that a spoke to me. The two verses were: Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. & Proverbs 24:10 If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Adversity, in a simplified definition, means "trouble." Certainly no one looks for trouble. Sickness, accidents, mishaps, and the resulting distress happen in everyone's lives and are often unforeseen. They can at times be daunting. God teaches us not to faint in the face of adversity; not to stop doing what we are supposed to and performing our vows and service to God, family, and community. I think that we have expanded our definition of adversity in our generation to include words like "tiredness" and even "opportunity." We usually aren't dealing with troubles as much as distractions an

BE BOLD FOR THE TRUTH! - Like John the Baptist

Don’t back off what you know to be true. The Bible is real, it is God's Word to man. We need to hold to what it says with conviction. John the Baptist did. It landed him in prison - just that one statement – “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” (Mark 6:18) But, he didn’t sway from it, he did not apologize for it! He stuck with the truth. A couple of men that I never personally followed but was also not against who years ago made a bold statement to America which I "AMENED" at the time: Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson both publicly stated boldly that 9/11 was a wake-up call to the American Christian; that it was the God’s lifting of his hand of protection and then a very short time later, both took back their comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMkBgA9_oQ4 https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126698&page=1 No, they were right, God did allow it - God certainly lifted His protective hand on our nation. Sure, it was a wicked act of lost hell bound

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