The Sermon from the Stock

It is Christmas, just barely, yet it is Christmas. I just came in from the barn. I fed horses, Longhorns, and a miniature donkey. I talked to them as I went about my business, as I usually do. I asked them about their day and told them about mine.

I know, for some of you, the mere thought is foolish. For those of you who dearly love animals, you know you speak of them as you do children. Many times you make sure they eat before you do. You tend to their every need, and you know they will listen to your concerns even when everyone else is too busy.

However, tonight is special. It is Christmas Eve. It is the night the animals speak. As tradition tells it, Jesus was born exactly at midnight. In the few minutes after the birth of Christ, the animals in the stable were the first ones to praise the birth of the new king. These praises lasted but a few minutes and were over by the time the shepherds showed up, but the legend continues and there are children and adults each Christmas Eve who are a little more attentive to the animals in their keeping.

To all of you who might be asking, “No,” I have never heard the animals talk on Christmas Eve. I have said many a thing to them, but I have never heard a reply. Yet there is a sense that those animals who tended the birth of Christ from the beginning somehow may be more in tune with the coming Messiah than many of us are.

On Christmas Day we celebrate that we live in a world into which the Messiah has come. He has come and is blessing us already. His very presence brings strength, life, hope, joy, and peace into our world of disorder, apathy, depression, and pain.

One of my favorite hymns is, God rest ye merry, Gentlemen.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay.

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born on Christmas Day

To save us all from Satan’s power

When we were gone astray.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

The first line of that song is my favorite. The word “rest” has a better meaning of “make” or “keep”. I have often heard people argue for the translation of “merry” as “mighty” when in fact that actually goes against the rest of the meaning of the first verse. We are not mighty. We are in need of radical intervention against a powerful enemy.

The comma belongs after merry which mean that the merry is not a descriptor of gentlemen. The first line is a short prayer or encouragement that God would make us merry and that our merriness comes from the victory already secured for us in Jesus Christ.

The phrase brings us rest and security. I get that same sense when I am out with the animals at midnight. When the one who cares for them is present, when they know they are cared for and loved, even a storm like blew through our area last night with lightning and thunder causes them no worry or concern. They rest in the presence of one they believe will make everything safe and right.

May God grant you that same sense of belonging, safety, and peace!

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Craig

This Day!

And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: . . .

Joshua 23:14

Joshua knew that his life was drawing to a close. He wants to people of Israel to understand their Godly heritage. He invites them to review with him what God has done for them down through the years. He appeals to the historical record of God’s intervention on their behalf. He recites the works of God through the generations beginning with Abraham until the present day.

Joshua asks them to never forget the value of a Godly national heritage. Neither would Joshua allow them to forget the value of God’s Book of the Law, a document that had been so valuable to him all through his time as a leader of the people. Joshua reminds the people that this rich national heritage is only maintained through the personal choice of the individuals of each generation. Choose this day whom you will serve. . .As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

He says, “There comes a time in the life of each one of you when you have to make your own choice. You have to choose whether you will ally yourself with the Lord God, live for Him, and serve Him, or whether you will go on living for yourselves in neglect of Him and perhaps serving other gods.” If the heritage is to be maintained, a personal choice for God has to be made by every individual. There comes to each of us a time of decision. None of us are excepted from this rule. Sooner or later each one of us will have to make that vital choice.

Though you be born in a nation that, at least sometime in its history, was willing to identify itself as Christian, though you come from a family of disciples of Jesus Christ, yet, you must make that decision on your own. That heritage does not make YOU a Christian.

Joshua was about to step aside. He loved the heritage and history of God in the midst of the people of Israel. He longed to see it continue forever, so it is within this context that he pleads his case before the national assembly that they might love the Lord their God as he did and might continue that heritage into the future. In the same way, Jesus Christ has left us a rich heritage in our country, but we must decide if we will continue it. Each generation decides for themselves, and each individual decides for himself or herself. At the wonderful season of Christmas, I pray you boldly know who your house will serve!

Pastor Craig

Having Christ or Experiencing Christ

You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ.

C. H. Spurgeon

There is a difference between having all of Christ and experiencing all of Christ. Jesus Christ never gives you only a portion of Himself. He holds nothing back in a relationship. God loves no one on the face of this earth more than you. There is no one who edges you out when it comes to importance and priorities before the throne. It is probably important to say here that you don’t edge anyone else out either. Our Heavenly Father is probably the only parent who can truly and completely say, “I love them all equally, but differently.”

Our own experience in relationships is somewhat different though. Remember the first time you asked someone out for a date? For most of us that was a pretty scary event. We thought the person would say yes. Our friends had been in contact with their friends and all the signals had come back good. However, there was that nagging doubt, something that may cause the whole thing to fall apart at the last second. It could be anything from some social or fashion blunder to bad breath or not being “in” or “cool”, whatever that might mean!

Jesus Christ is the one who loved you before you ever were conceived. Your face was in his mind; your name was on his lips when he died upon that cross. We do not have to worry about His commitment to us. He will certainly throw all of Himself at us.

It is in our own ability, or willingness, to throw ourselves into that same experience that creates a feeling of difference, levels, or distance from time to time. Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in unto him” (Rev. 3:20).

For those who despair, fullness in Christ may be as simple as opening the door all the way. Some of us have always been cautious in our relationships. Christ, who loves without question or hesitancy is asking us to trust him and come as close as we can to returning that love in the same way.

Pastor Craig