Oh well, I may be getting older but along with that I'm getting wiser! Wisdom comes with experience and experience comes from making mistakes. Taking the time to learn from those mistakes does indeed give one experience! And I've surely made my fair share of them, just ask Steve! Uh, on second thought maybe not! :)
With the years of hearing the Christmas story, growing up in the church, hearing it at home, reading it In my alone time with God and then running full circle of teaching it to our son, and bringing him to church, it is easy to just gloss over it. I mean by my age, even if I'd only heard it once a year I've heard the Christmas story at least, 40 + times by now! (Not divulging my exact age in this format!) :)
So how does one make it fresh and new? Actually it's not my job to make it fresh and new. Well I do have to put forth the desire, but God is the One who makes it fresh every year! As for this year, God has already given me a new, old truth that I remeber learning around the age of 13 or 14. Michael is fourteen this year and I don't know why, but that is one period of my life that I remember vividly!
I remember learning the meaning of my name, which means Pure, or Pure one, around that time. Learning the meaning of my name put the desire in me to live up to it! I also remember a fill in Pastor in our church, Rev. Jack Pease talking about the virgin Mary. He spoke of how she was probably very young, maybe 15 years old and God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.
She was just a common girl, not of royalty, there was nothing that drew attention to her. And yet in her young innocence she chose to live in such a way, that God would pick her to be the mother to His son.
Rev. Pease challenged us to be that kind of man or woman. That when God is looking for someone to use for His plan, that He would choose you! Now, I know, that God uses people who've messed up. People who were totally not perfect by any stretch of the imagination! Look at the apostle Paul, he murdered Christians, in the form of what he thought was the right thing to do!Yet God revealed Himself to Paul and he was a different man! He then went on to be one of the first missionaries of the gospel and he wrote nearly 1/2 of the New Testament! So I know better than to think that God only uses the perfect, the holy, the elite! And Romans 3:23 makes it very clear that we've all sinned and
have fallen short of God's glory. Also, Isaiah states that, " all of our righteousness is as filthy rags". (Isaiah 64:6). Even if we do everything to our best, humanly speaking, it's still not good enough to come into the presence of a holy God!
After having said all of that, even Mary, would have been imperfect and in need of having her sins
forgiven! Yet God saw her hearts desire! The desire to do what is right and pleasing to God! There is something to be said of the one whose grown up in the church and has chosen to follow Jesus. A life that has been spared the the consequences of rebelling and reaping the results of that rebellion.
There are no garuntees that the son we are raising will always choose the "narrow" path. But I have thrown out this challenge to him that Rev. Pease threw out to our church when I was a teen! Strive to be that kind of person that when God is looking for someone to use, that He'd choose you! I pray that Steve and I as parents are faithful to practice what we preach!
Simply and Honestly, the only gift I want, really can't be bought at CVS. It can only be bought through the life that Jesus gave when He died for our sins and paid the price. What I want for
Christmas is to know that we've have been faithful to pass the baton onto our son. To see him to continue to make that choice and live for God! No pressure on Steve and I as parents!
I remember learning the meaning of my name, which means Pure, or Pure one, around that time. Learning the meaning of my name put the desire in me to live up to it! I also remember a fill in Pastor in our church, Rev. Jack Pease talking about the virgin Mary. He spoke of how she was probably very young, maybe 15 years old and God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.
She was just a common girl, not of royalty, there was nothing that drew attention to her. And yet in her young innocence she chose to live in such a way, that God would pick her to be the mother to His son.
Rev. Pease challenged us to be that kind of man or woman. That when God is looking for someone to use for His plan, that He would choose you! Now, I know, that God uses people who've messed up. People who were totally not perfect by any stretch of the imagination! Look at the apostle Paul, he murdered Christians, in the form of what he thought was the right thing to do!Yet God revealed Himself to Paul and he was a different man! He then went on to be one of the first missionaries of the gospel and he wrote nearly 1/2 of the New Testament! So I know better than to think that God only uses the perfect, the holy, the elite! And Romans 3:23 makes it very clear that we've all sinned and
have fallen short of God's glory. Also, Isaiah states that, " all of our righteousness is as filthy rags". (Isaiah 64:6). Even if we do everything to our best, humanly speaking, it's still not good enough to come into the presence of a holy God!
After having said all of that, even Mary, would have been imperfect and in need of having her sins
forgiven! Yet God saw her hearts desire! The desire to do what is right and pleasing to God! There is something to be said of the one whose grown up in the church and has chosen to follow Jesus. A life that has been spared the the consequences of rebelling and reaping the results of that rebellion.
There are no garuntees that the son we are raising will always choose the "narrow" path. But I have thrown out this challenge to him that Rev. Pease threw out to our church when I was a teen! Strive to be that kind of person that when God is looking for someone to use, that He'd choose you! I pray that Steve and I as parents are faithful to practice what we preach!
Simply and Honestly, the only gift I want, really can't be bought at CVS. It can only be bought through the life that Jesus gave when He died for our sins and paid the price. What I want for
Christmas is to know that we've have been faithful to pass the baton onto our son. To see him to continue to make that choice and live for God! No pressure on Steve and I as parents!
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