Pastor’s Notes for December:

It’s an Amazing feeling! Christmas is coming! You can feel it in the air, you can hear it in the music, you can see it on TV, it’s evident on people’s faces, the stores look different, the lights, the music, the bells, the trees, the decorations, people are really expecting something good!

All these wonderful scenes of Christmas are not signs of despair. I mean, after all, people get sick of war, killings, disasters, tragedies, political infighting, deceitful political leaders, wickedness in high places, of people living without any sense of moral goodness, and a world that has lost it’s moral compass. People get tired of poverty, overbearing taxes, and a lack of decency and respect for human life!

THAT WAS THE KIND OF WORLD THAT JESUS CAME INTO! I MEAN Matthew 2 tells us that King Herod flew into a rage and ordered the slaughter of all the little boys under 2 years of age! Do you supposed those soldiers checked birth certificates or do you think there were thousands who were 3 or 4 that were slaughtered? After all, King Herod, the highest-ranking official in the land ordered it! Oh it really was a dark day in history: tyrannical government, leaders enamored with themselves, censorship by census, everyone registered, traveling great distances to pay unreasonable taxes, the people were tired of it all! The people were looking for a Messiah, a Savior. They were expecting something good to happen. Now, get your Bible and read Luke 2:1-10.

Wow! Read verse 14 again: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men! Just when it seemed like they couldn’t take anymore - everything that the Prophet Isaiah had said in chapter 9 verses 1 -7 (don’t read anymore until you read those verses out of your own Bible.) Did you do it? O.K. read it again! YET! IT HAPPENED!! ON CHRISTMAS!!

People were walking in darkness - yes, just before Christmas, they were living in depressed times and ruled by an oppressive government. Now compare Isaiah 9:6 with Luke 2:10-14!

JESUS CAME! HOPE CAME! TRUTH AND LIGHT AND LIFE CAME! CHRISTMAS IS FOR BELIEVING PEOPLE - EXPECTING PEOPLE - PEOPLE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING GOOD TO HAPPEN - PEOPLE WHO STILL BELIEVE IN GOD!

At this wonderful time of the year, listen to the music, look at the decorations, smell the wonderful aroma of candies and baked goods, look at the faces of children, listen to the humming of Grandma’s & Grandpa’s, THEY ARE ALL EXPECTING SOMETHING GOOD TO HAPPEN! ARE WE? Perhaps the best Christmas Scripture for 2009, for Believing, Expecting, Faithful Christians, is found in 1^st Corinthians 15:50 - 56. Did you read it? Did you get it? Now read 1^st Corinthians 15:57-58 (NIV) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

It’s Christmas! I’m Believing, I’m Expecting, I’m Looking for something good, I’M LOOKING FOR JESUS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

PASTOR JIM & DOLLY