What Is Your Will In Christ?

As we come to face the new year, many are looking back - chronicling the events of the year past. But for followers of Christ, looking back is only profitable when it produces something positive toward the year ahead. Father God isn't a backward looking Lord, but a positive and forward looking God of hope, newness and creativity. Memory Lane might be a preoccupation for some, but disciples of Christ have the best reasons to avoid that detour and stay focused on the road ahead. Those reasons are at least as numerous as all of God's promises. Life in the world has its troubles and its difficulties and regardless of what might be said by some, Jesus never promised that we'd have everything we wanted or that life would be easy. Anyone promoting anything to the contrary should be checked against the reality of scripture and they might be someone to avoid. John 16:33 (NLT) "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many tria

I could easily find myself wrapped up in traditions at Christmas time. All of the excitement of finding the right gifts, decorating a tree and the house lead to a building anticipation and mark the coming of a renewed celebration. But what is it that I choose to celebrate? I could point to many Christmases past and remember them fondly, once again savoring the spirit, reliving the joys and the excitement of moments shared. In this Christmas present, I could find genuine reasons to be merry in spirit while surrounded by children and grandchildren, making the most of precious time together and I certainly will. But if I celebrate the traditions of Christmas, if I find anything in the present more occupying, hold anything in my heart more dear, or let it overshadow the very thing I claim to celebrate in the commemoration of one particular event, I've settled for nothing less than a celebration of mere humanity. The very word Christmas comes from the term Mass of Christ - a celeb

I caught a glimpse in the longing eyes of a stranger. It was the gentleness in the heavy gaze that I felt locked on me as I hurriedly passed him by on my own determined mission. With shabby shoes and long worn out clothes, the man looked hard worn himself, but he had a peaceful calmness about him that conflicted with my immediate first impression...  He could have been a man once caught in a whirlwind by life's unending challenge. He might have once been someone just like me, but instead of fighting to get up just one more time, was too beaten down, weak and tired to fight his way forward yet again and gave up the fight when life once again rolled him over. Maybe it was a loss - a love, a spouse, a child, a friend or even brother that brought him down one last time. I couldn't know. Or maybe it was the decaying culminations of an addiction that started from a simple but desperate need just to cope in his daily struggles - just a little help, trying to get by. It might h

If we were to set aside any and all of our "Christmas" activities and thoughts for a moment... and imagined being present on that very day when Christ entered the world in the form of a man-child, what was it like - that very day that we strive to celebrate? There were no decorated trees with packages under them, no ribbons, no bows. There was no Santa in red or reindeer with shiny noses. There weren't any elves or animated snowmen with top hats and there wasn't even a single strand of electric lights. What a desolate scene that first Christmas must have been.                                                  No!... Oh human imagine with me with deep thought, what wondrous adornment, what decoration our God provided that mere man in his greatest achievements of wonder would fail miserably to replicate... In the glory of the night sky - a vacuum for man's marvel in itself, a star far more attractive than all the others stood brightly to mark the very locati