Shift Your Focus… It was the Sunday before Christmas, and a little brother and sister were in church singing a Christmas hymn with the congregation. And as the song finished, the boy belted out rather loudly, “sleep in heavenly beans.” His sister gave him the most righteously indignant stare she could muster, and in a not-too-soft whisper said, “It’s not ‘heavenly beans’. It’s ‘sleep in heavenly peas.’”

As you know, they both butchered the words of the most well-loved Christmas hymn of all time. What you may not know is that back in 1818 that hymn was born. The birthplace was St. Nicholas Church in a small Austrian alpine village where a 31-year-old church organist by the name of Franz Gruber composed a melody on his guitar because the church organ was broken. The melody was for a poem that had been written earlier by the 26-year-old pastor of that church, Joseph Mohr. The poem was entitled, “Stille Nacht”, and the melody quickly formed in Gruber’s mind.

On that evening, in time for Midnight Mass, the world’s most famous Christmas Carol was heard for the very first time. It’s the same song that by tradition believers still sing every year during the season of Advent. It’s the song, “Silent Night.”

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin,
Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Now I don’t want to spoil your Thomas Kincade image of “Silent Night”, but I’m not too sure how “calm” and “bright” the night of Christ’s birth was. The Bible tells us that Mary’s pregnancy had been suspect in the eyes of her village from the beginning. She had been unmarried when the news arrived that she’d be pregnant with the Messiah by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not too many of the townsfolk had bought that story, and she likely became the object of their cruel and incessant gossip.

Then when the time came for the baby’s birth, Mary and Joseph had been required to travel by foot the arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not an easy trip for anyone in those days, especially for a woman in the late stages of pregnancy. When they arrived, they were forced to stay in a stable because the inn had no room. And there among the squalor of the smelly, noisy animals, alone, with no family to rejoice with her, no mid-wife to assist her, a teenage virgin girl gave birth to the king of the world. And if Jesus was like most infants, like my two daughters when they were born, there was anything but peace and quiet that night.

Yet in the simple, humble, unlikely birth of Jesus, something Divine, something Eternal was released on Planet Earth. As someone has pointed out, the best Christmas present ever was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Franz Gruber truly did capture that indescribable, priceless gift with the words, “heavenly peace.” That night, God invaded earth, and heavenly peace was left in the wake of the Divine invasion. The angels who announced the Christ’s birth to the nearby shepherds couldn’t have put it any better,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace on whom his favor rest.

The infant Jesus may not have slept in heavenly peace that night, Mary and Joseph may not have enjoyed a peaceful night’s rest either, but God’s peace invaded earth that night in Bethlehem, and you and I on this Christmas Day are its beneficiaries.

So let me ask you a very important question: Are you benefiting from God’s peace? Is the peace of God, as Paul called it in Philippians 4, “guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus”? Is the peace of Christ, as Colossians 3 describes, “ruling in your heart”?

Perhaps the peace that passes all understanding is the last thing characterizing your life today. Maybe worry, anxiety, fear and stress dominate your world at the moment. My friend, God wants you to have his heavenly peace. That is his gift, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, and the gift is just for you!

Now God’s peace is neither a blanket guarantee of global harmony nor a promise that your life will be conflict-free. It is just simply saying that if you are in God’s favor, which comes by virtue of accepting his Son as your Lord and Savior, his peace will guard your mind, it will rule your heart, and it will sustain your life.

The “heavenly peace” that Gruber wrote about and the angels announced is God’s gift to you this Christmas, even if your world seems a long way from being peaceful. It is simply the peace that comes from knowing that in the birth of Christ, eternity irrevocably invaded time and God drew near to you and me through Jesus Christ, our Immanuel.

That’s the heavenly peace God wants you to have on this very day, and every day for the rest of your life.

One night the small voice of a little girl was heard from the bedroom across the hall, “Daddy, I’m scared!”

The father’s response came quickly: “Honey, don’t be afraid, daddy’s right across the hall.”

After a brief pause the little voice was heard again, “I’m still scared!”

Again the father responded, “You don’t need to be afraid. God is watching over you.”

There was a longer pause, but the voice returned, “Daddy, I want someone with skin on!”

Jesus is God “with skin on”, and he is right here, right now, forever with you, powerfully present through Christ, who invaded earth for all time at Bethlehem.

And if you have received him by faith, you can sleep in heavenly peace.

“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”  ~Charles Dickens

Prayer… O God, how much you loved me that you would give me the best and costliest gift ever, wrapped in swaddling cloths and placed in a manger. Thank you. Once again, on this Christmas Day, I receive the Prince of Peace and invite his peace to rule my heart.

One of the bittersweet callings of a pastor is to stand with people to offer comfort and strength on the worst day of their lives. More often than not, my experience tells me that in those times, there are no words, there are no answers—so you simply cry, and hug, and pray.

As I reflected this morning on the tragic loss of a young husband just a few hours ago, searching for a truth that would anchor his grieving wife and devastated family, my thoughts were directed to a verse we all know and love, Romans 8:28,

“We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

On the one hand, I am grateful for such an “easy” verse to quote in the face of hardship and tragedy. On the other hand, I have to stop and ask myself, in light of this young believer’s sudden and unexpected home-going, “do I really believe that God will cause even this to work for the good of his grieving wife and devastated family?”  I think you would agree that in all honesty, it’s a stretch to see how any good could come of this.

As I was thinking about this, a story popped into my head that I had read several years ago about the all-too-brief life of a would-be missionary named Glen Chambers.

When God called him to the mission field, Glen didn’t hesitate.  He began his preparation with fervor.  He earned his way through Bible College by working nights and weekends.  He mastered the rigors of language school; he learned Spanish as well as two Indian dialects.  And he suffered the added heartbreak of a broken romance because his girlfriend didn’t want to become a missionary’s wife.

The toughest part for Glen, however, was saying goodbye to his widowed mother.  But with Spanish Bible in hand, he set out on a flight to Quito, Ecuador to begin his service with a radio ministry known as Voice of the Andes.

But Glen never reached Quito.  Without warning, a late afternoon storm struck with violent fury.  The airliner lost its bearings and slammed into the side of the rugged 14,000 foot Andes mountain peak, El Tablazo, and exploded into a thunderous fireball.  Everyone on board the plane, including Glen Chambers, lost their lives.

Before Glen had left the Miami airport that morning, he wanted to write a note to his mother.  So he picked up a scrap of advertising on the airport floor, scribbled a note on the back, slipped it into an envelope and dropped it into a mailbox.

Just a few days later, after the news of the tragic accident had reached her, Glen’s grieving mother received the note.  With trembling hands she opened the envelope to read her son’s final words.  What caught her eye, however, was one single word from the folded advertisement.  One word, emblazoned across the back of Glen’s note, silently screamed the question of questions we’re all tempted to ask during times of tragedy,

WHY?

Of all the questions we ask, this is the most searching, the most tormenting, the most haunting.  It falls from the lips of the mother who delivers her baby—stillborn … from the wife who has to tell her children, “daddy is gone”… from the husband who hears the doctor say, “Your wife has cancer—it’s terminal” … from the heartbroken lover who hears the devastating words, “It’s over” … to the financially struggling young father who loses his job …

WHY?  That’s the question that haunts us all, at one time or another.  Why did this happen?  Why is this happening now?  Why am I the one who is going through this?  Why should I believe that anything good can come of this?  WHY?

The truth is, we may never fully get an explanation in this life to satisfy that burning question or soothe the ache of the sorrow that grows from it, but as followers of the One who invaded Planet Earth to rescue us from the tragic effects of the Fall, there is this abiding truth to which we can confidently cling in unexplainable and unexpected times,

God is too kind to do anything cruel
Too wise to make a mistake
Too deep to explain himself

The Apostle Paul once wrote,

“Oh the depth…of the wisdom of God and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”  (Romans 11:33)

We don’t always know “why”, but we do know “Who”.  We do know Who has promised to work all things to our good … Who has never broken a promise, not a single one!  … Who has promised to walk with us in our deepest sorrows and ultimately bring victory out of what the Evil One intended as harm.  We can, and we must, cling to that truth at times like these.  It is the only antidote to the deep darkness of hopelessness into which we would otherwise sink.

“He who promised is faithful!”

Remember Glen Chambers?  On his way to Quito, Ecuador to be a missionary, to devote his life to the Lord’s call, when his plane crashed into that mountain not too far from Bogota, Columbia and tumbled into a ravine below in a heap of twisted metal.  It would seem that Glen’s lifelong dream of serving God had been aborted.

Or had it?

Some years later, another missionary was in a remote area of the Colombian Andes where missionaries had never been.  As she shared the gospel with a family, the father interrupted.

“Oh, we already know about Jesus!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “We are all believers.”

Ruth was shocked, and finally asked, “How do you know about Jesus?”

The father shared that years before, a man had come across a charred suitcase in the mountains.  Inside that suitcase was a Spanish Bible that had made its way into their possession. They showed that very Bible to the missionary.  As she opened it, there in the flyleaf was a name.  You guessed it—none other than Glen Chambers.[1]

We may never know why things happen like they do.  We may not know when and how our trials will be turned into triumphs.

But we do know one thing … we do have this certainty … we know “Who” is bigger than all our questions.  And He is faithful!

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, comfort you in His love and care.

Pastor Ray

July 4th—the day the citizens of the United States celebrates their most treasured national holiday—the signing of the declaration of our independence from England. Our chests swell with pride as fireworks fill the sky to the music of John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” and our eyes moisten with gratitude as we remember the sacrifice of countless numbers of patriots who gave their lives to give us what we now enjoy—our freedom. What a great holiday—Independence Day.

But as much as we enjoy the Fourth of July, there is something better than celebrating Independence Day once a year, and that is declaring our dependence every day of the year. You see, the best freedom, the strongest security and the highest happiness comes from the practice of acknowledging Father God as the Lord of all creation and the rightful ruler of our lives. National independence is an amazing thing, but it doesn’t even come close to comparing to spiritual dependence! And it is through declaring our dependence on God that we discover what it truly means to be free.

That’s why in the world’s most powerful prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray these simple words, “give us this day our daily bread.” Simply put, to pray this prayer is to declare our dependence daily.

You might find it interesting that this the only time in the entire Bible that this particular Greek word translated as “daily bread” is used. In fact, this word baffled scholars and translators for years because they couldn’t find any record of it in any of the ancient manuscripts of Greek literature—sacred or secular. Then in the 1940s the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, and in those fragments—both biblical and secular documents—this word, “daily” was found. And scholars learned that the word was used for a daily shopping list of that which was perishable and would only be good for today. It literally meant “the bread that suffices for this day.”

That brings up an important point to what Jesus was saying: That even though God is our provider, his promise to provide is provisional. In other words, his promise of provision is not a blank check. Jesus deliberately chose this word “daily” not because God likes to hear us beg, but to teach us the importance of coming to God and expressing our dependence on him day-by-day.

Asking for daily bread is hard for us to relate to because most Americans have today’s food and tomorrow’s food and next week’s food sitting in the freezer. Our need for daily bread has been forever skewed by the age of Costco. We no longer go out to the garden to pick dinner, or to the market to buy that night’s meal. We go to Costco!

Costco is not a place; it is an experience. It is not the size of a grocery store; it’s the size of a small town. Employees there don’t use box cutters; they drive forklifts. Your grocery cart is the size of a Volkswagen. You don’t walk down an aisle, ground control crews guide you down a runway. You don’t pick up individual items, you pick up a pallet. When you check out, you make a payment similar to a car payment. Then you haul it home and think, “Where are we going to put this stuff?” Do we really need to buy toilet paper 48 rolls at a time? Then sometimes when we get down to, say, like 36 rolls, we go buy another 48 rolls. 84 rolls of TP…seriously, are we really ever going to need that much?

The point is, in 21st century America, daily bread is not much of a felt need. But even still, that daily bread comes from God and it can be taken away in a heartbeat. We should never forget that, nor get into the habit of taking God’s provision for granted! Go look in your refrigerator, or freezer, or cupboard, or closet…that came from God!

And even if daily bread is not your need, you have other needs that are pressing: A difficult marriage, a wayward child, a financial meltdown, an addiction, an emotional disorder, a life-and-death battle with cancer.  It may not be for food, but your need for God’s daily provision is still just as great.

Remember in the Old Testament when God provided manna for the Israelites to eat—but only a day at a time. They could only collect enough manna for that day—they couldn’t store it in Costco size cases. Why did God do it that way? So that every 24 hours they would have to trust God to meet their needs. That’s where the verse came from, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut. 8:33)

What does that mean? That God has designed it so that we must come back to him daily, because he is the source of all that we need. That’s why Jesus taught us to ask God daily to keep us ever mindful that God himself is the source of our life.

What is your manna? What is it that every 24 hours drives you to say, “God, I’m going to trust you for this because you are my only source”?

Let me remind you that whatever your need is today, God has promised to meet it. So go ahead—boldly, gratefully and expectantly declare your dependence on God today! Then do it again the next day and the day after that. Declaring your dependence daily on God is not only a great way to honor  him, it is the best way to live!

Prayer: Lord, today I happily declare my dependence on you. You are my source and my provider. I look to you to give me every good and perfect gift. You have always supplied my every need, and for that I am grateful. And because you are covenantly faithful, I have no doubts that you will take care of tomorrow’s provisions as well—so I thank you in advance for them. Today, I pray that you will give me everything I need to live the abundant life that you sent your Son to provide. Supply all of my needs according to your riches in glory, and in your rich supply, may I be living proof of a loving, generous, faithful Father. And if the thing that I request today is in your plans for me to receive in heaven instead, your will be done!