Strive To Know Him Better

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Did you get everything you wanted? Did you give everything you could? I hope you were able to spend some significant time with family and friends and a significant amount of time with the One whom we celebrate.

One thing never ceases to amaze me at Christmas time. That is, we get presents on someone else’s birthday. And at most Christmas celebrations, the Guest of honor, the “birthday honoree” is never even mentioned except in the official greeting of “Merry Christmas”.

Did you bring Him a gift this year? Did you take time out to honor Him on His birthday? If not, don’t beat yourself up. The wonderful thing about our Lord is that worshipping Him is not confined to a day, place or season. Here at TBC we celebrate the Christ of Christmas every week.

Here we are at the end of another year. Do you know Him better now than you did last year at this time? As we move forward into another year of many unknown’s let’s make a commitment as a church and as individuals to strive to know Him better and love Him deeper in 2004.
And remember, it won’t happen by itself and it won’t be easy. Day by day, you and I will be faced with distractions that will seek to take our minds off of growing in Christ. Have you ever gone to a celebration and while there you get reacquainted with an old friend? At the end of the night you express how good it was to see each other again and you may exchange emails and cell phone numbers. Reality is that most of the time you are fortunate if you are in contact with that person one time after that re-acquaintance .

May it not be so with you and the Lord. Do you experience a sense of closeness at Christmas and New Year’s that stirs you to make resolutions to spend more time getting to know Him? Take one day at a time and make a choice to make it a habit to “keep in touch” with Jesus, Emmanuel, the source and strength of your days.

There is a song that states, “I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds my tomorrow.” What an awesome truth and hope to grasp as we journey through such uncertain days.

Friend, take my hand and together let’s walk down this road.

With you on the journey,

MJ

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

2 Tim 1:12 NIV

Merry Christmas!

Each week we celebrate our Great God for all that He is and for all He has done and is doing. Today we focus in on celebrating our Master: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." (Phil. 2:6,7) Praise and glory be to Him!

As you celebrate this Christmas be sure and take some time out just to thank Jesus for being willing and obedient to step into your journey so that you could have a relationship with His Father. Celebrate Him for being the greatest gift ever known to man. Celebrate His Father for being the Giver of such an incredible gift! Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Cor. 9:15)

The greatest gift and celebration that you could offer Him today, if you have not already, would be to receive the Greatest Gift from the Greatest Giver which is being offered to you today. So, if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, give your life to Him today and experience why the God of the universe moved heaven and earth just so your could celebrate what we call Christmas day. (John 3:16)

If you have received that gift, in an act of gratitude, take some time and share this wonderful gift with someone else. Don’t be politically correct and say, “Happy Holidays!” Shout with confidence and thankfulness, “Merry Christmas!” It’s all about Jesus. We give gifts to model His act of giving of Himself. Take some time in the midst of your gift giving and praise, thank and worship the Giver of all gifts.

Have a blessed celebration and remember to say Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Pastor MJ

All Hail King Jesus

For thirty five years he ruled with fear. Thousands were killed, raped, maimed, exiled, tortured, and otherwise humiliated under his reign. Fear of him caused hundreds to sacrifice their lives believing a lie. Many fought to the death for this man they called leader. Just four short years ago the world saw in living color the reality that the rewards of evil are indeed counterfeit.

Here was the dictator of Iraq, who called his people, even his own sons to fight to the death, crawling through a hole in the ground with a pistol at his side, shouting, "Dont shoot; dont shoot. I am Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq. I am willing to negotiate."

For the families of every man woman and child who gave their lives in allegiance to him, the pain of their loss hit the lowest of lows at that moment realizing that their leader was not even willing to do what hed called them to do.

Many years ago there was another leader, a fugitive of sorts, hiding from a jealous king, who spent the first 33 years of His life walking the walk that He called His people to walk. He told them to love, He loved. He told them to turn the other cheek and love their enemies, He did just that. He told them not to yield to temptation, He was tempted beyond belief, but did not yield. He told them to spread love to the unlovely, He was the master at that. He told them to forgive, He was the ultimate forgiver. He told them to honor their parents, He did so with such grace as a child and an adult. He told them that greater love has no man than to give up his life for a friend, he called them His friends and for them He laid down His life. This leader asked His followers to do nothing that He was not only willing to do, but did do to set the example for them.

This leader, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is who we celebrate as we gather today and as we celebrate Christmas this month. He was born to die. He lived to serve. He died to give life. He rose from the dead to show that everything He was born, lived and died for was real and that we could do all the things that Hes called us to do through His power that is in us through His Holy Spirit.

Four years ago we saw thousands rejoicing over the capture of an evil counterfeit.

Today, and during this special month, we celebrate that One who showed us what true leadership is.

To Him we shout, "All Hail King Jesus! Happy Birthday!"

Pastor MJ

Born To Die: What A Destiny?

He comes, a Child from realms on high;

He comes the heavens adoring.

He comes to earth to live and die, A broken race restoring.

(Joseph Barlowe "Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light")

Born to die: What a destiny? Although each of us knows that every new born baby that we lay our eyes on will one day die, we always hope and dream of the long life that they will live and as we gaze into their eyes for the most part thoughts of life, not death fill our hearts.

It was not so one special day, long ago. As this Father saw His Son being born, He knew that He was being born for one purpose only, and that was to die.

That very first Christmas morning was filled with heavenly awe and celestial celebration. However, God the Father saw, from His perspective, the manger and right next to it He saw the cross. Baby Jesus, God in the flesh was being held up by a wooden manger made from the very wood that He had created, realizing that one day in the not too distant future that wood from another tree that He has created would hold Him up as well, only this time instead of being warmed by the hay wrapped in cloth, He would be cold held up with nails.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, just a couple of weeks away, let this year be one in which we see this day in history as one of the most powerful moments ever. Allow that reflection to cause us to praise and worship God for what He has done in a new and fresh way.

Lets remember the true meaning of Christmas, that it was not all about gifts and the hype of the holiday and that it is not even about time spent with family and friends, but it is all about Him, all about Jesus and His leaving Heavens throne to come to earth, to be born and to die so that you and I could live.

My friend, whatever your Christmas plans include this year, please make it a point to take some time and worship God for the true meaning of Christmas. And every time you see manger scenes remember that the reason for the manger was to prepare the way to the cross. And never forget that your new birth in Christ was the prelude not the end to your walk, but that each of us also must take the way to the cross and die to ourselves in order to become alive in Him. Jesus came to show the way. Lets worship Him with our everythingness today.

Pastor MJ