So often in the Christmas story, we focus on the main characters: Mary, Joseph, and, of course, Jesus. But through the short account in Luke 2:8–20, we can learn from the shepherds four things that should make the top of our to-do list this Christmas.
Message One Believe The angels announced in spectacular fashion that the Messiah had been born. As soon as the angels left, the shepherds looked at each other and said: What are we waiting for?...
Message Two Obey The shepherds did exactly as they were told. We sometimes think of Christmas as a tame holiday. We think of sweet little baby Jesus asleep on a bed of hay...
Message Three Tell When the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem and saw the child lying in the feed trough, “they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.”...
Message Four Experience The shepherds were overwhelmed at the angel’s announcement. They experienced holy wonder...
Thanks to: Mark Mitchell with JoHannah Reardon
***************************************************
Thoughts of waiting from Henri Nouwen
"Waiting is not a very popular attitude. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go.
It impresses me, therefore, that all the figures who appear on the first pages of Luke's Gospel are waiting. Zechariah and Elizabeth are waiting. Mary is waiting. Simeon and Anna are waiting. The whole opening scene of the good news is filled with waiting people.
But what is the nature of waiting? What is the practice of waiting? How are they waiting, and how are we called to wait with them?
Waiting, as we see it in the people on the first pages of the Gospel, is waiting with a sense of promise. This is very important. We can only really wait if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. So waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something to something more.
Second, waiting is active. Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.
But there is more. Waiting is open-ended. Open-ended waiting is hard for us because we tend to wait for something very concrete, for something we wish to have. "I wish that I would have a job. I wish that the weather could be better. I wish that the pain would go."
For this reason, a lot of our waiting is not open-ended. Instead, our waiting is a way of controlling the future. We want the future to go in a very specific direction, and if this does not happen we are disappointed and can even slip into despair.
But Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary were not filled with wishes. They were filled with hope. Hope is something very different. Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just according to our wishes.
Just imagine what Mary was actually saying in the words, 'I am the handmaid of the Lord...let what you have said be done to me.' She was saying, 'I don't know what this all means, but I trust that good things will happen.'
She trusted so deeply that her waiting was open to all possibilities. And she did not want to control them. She believed that when she listened carefully, she could trust what was going to happen.
The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control."
"In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried 5,000 of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: 'Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices; Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his world rejoices. Who, from our mother's arms, Hath led us on our way With countless gifts of love And still is ours today.' Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
To share with Family & Friends this Thanksgiving. A gift that you are thankful for that you have received this year. Things you have learned about God this year that have changed your life. Things you are thankful for about your family's faith. Things you are thankful for about your family. An experience your family had this year that made you happy. People outside your family who have blessed you in some way May this week of Thanksgiving...lead us to live a life of ThanksLiving!
I am reading in 2 Timothy.....always have been challenged and empowered by 2 Tim 2:2..." and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."It is all about Reproducing...it was God's first and ONLY plan...so how am I or you "teaching others"?...
End of chapter 3...verse 17 "that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
Paul goes on in Chapter 4..."I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."....and then comes the promise...given to those who have reproduced-were equipped-have finished the race...through God's grace I am rewarded...because of what He has done for me....my works are because of His love.........thanks be to God.
Jesus purposefully pursued quiet time with His Father--a sacred space worthy of sacrifice, where the urgent bows to the eternal; a gift--not a waste--of time for God.
Carving out moments to be alone with God is an exercise in stillness where we elevate the Creator above creation, "being" above "doing". Where we listen to the One who is always listening to us.
Resting in God's presence, our soul enjoys a banquet from God's Word. Our minds forge an alliance with truth, and dreams are born. Alicia Britt Chole
He who loves me will be loved by My Father, And I will love him. John 14:21
He who loves me will be loved by My Father, And I will love him. John 14:21
Reading in Champagne for the Soul by Mike Mason this Sunday morning 9/19/10 and Mike is sharing about keeping the fire of Joy burning/building in our lives. "Yes, Joy is God's gift, but we must stretch out our hands to split the kindling of prayer, carry the logs of good deeds, lay the fire of faith and strike the match of the Spirit." Mike goes on to state..."If we do our part, the Lord will not fail to build a cheerful, roaring fire in our hearts."
Got to do our part....novel idea. So many times we want God to do it all...but we are in a relationship andall great relationships require that each do his part.
Just like our faith.....we might at one time been on fire...but it is cooling....is that becasue I haven't spent time with Him...in prayer...in His word....with fellow believers and non-believers...in serving Him...in being silent...in waiting.
The fire will come and will grow...we need to be diligent in its building!
Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow; the same Everlating Father who cares for you today will take care for you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
