Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
We hope that you enjoy this Christmas hymn sung by Zach and Meghan Stevenson with a prayer from Rich Stevenson.
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Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11
Two of those words just jump right out to me as I prepare for the Christmas holiday: TO YOU! Christ’s birth is meant to be interactive!
Here’s one of my all time favorite stories from our past ministry. . .
We had just planted a non-denominational church in a very denominational town. There was a great deal of suspicion about whether we were “legit” or not. Because I was the low man on the pastoral totem poll, our church got the job for the city-wide Christmas celebration that no one else wanted…staffing the living nativity. I did want any red-blooded pastor would do, I delegated the responsibility to my newly appointed youth workers.
What could go wrong?
Our lead youth worker was relatively unchurched. And he had never done a live nativity before. This southern gentleman was now given the huge responsibility of playing Joseph. Everything looked fine the night of the performance. We had great costumes, a real baby, and even live animals.
As the people started to gather and look at the beauty of the nativity, it became apparent that no one had told “Joseph” that living nativities were to be seen and not heard! He started interacting with the crowd. . .
“Ya’ll want to see my baby boy?”
I knew this was going to be a very different experience when I heard him say: “Would you like to hold him?”
I was just VERY glad that he didn’t have cigars!
Here’s the TRUTH. . .Christ’s birth is meant to be interactive! Today a Savior has been born TO YOU!!!!!!
He is forever in the present tense and He is meant to be experienced. In fact, he would like to hold you!
Maybe you saw the #hashtag segment with Jimmy Fallon this week on The Tonight Show. He asked the viewing public to tweet some stories of failed Thanksgivings. Here’s one: My mother burned our turkey to a crisp, plopped 2 lbs of b0logna on the table and said “meat is meat!”
This week I’ve been studying John 6 and focusing on Christ’s statement: “I am the bread of life.” In this chapter, He calls out at least 3 #faithfails. . .paths that promised to take you to faith, but would end in unbelief. Continue reading
Is an ENCOUNTER with God adversarial?
If you look at the Latin root of the word encounter, you find two parts: “in” and “contra” (against). The root meaning is: “meet as an adversary.”
On Billy Graham’s 96th birthday, I want to repost one of my favorite blogs.
I’m sure I could come up with 50, but I’ve zeroed in on 5 of the biggest reasons that I love Billy Graham.
#1 Billy Graham’s most often repeated phrase in preaching is: “The Bible says. . .”
Culture didn’t drive his preaching. Politics didn’t dictate his delivery. He wasn’t seeker sensitive, He was Spirit sensitive. Like John Wesley, you could honestly say that Billy Graham is “a man of one book.” Although many tried to sway him, Billy took the Bible literally and declared it’s simple, clear message faithfully. After 60 plus years of preaching, he still defers the power of his ministry to the Word of God.
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