www.mastershandsdeafchurch.org

Monday, December 3, 2012

Monday Morning 12/3/2012



What’s on your Christmas list this year? Did you or someone you know set up the tent to wait outside Best Buy to be the first in line to get the latest TV? I have one thing on my Christmas list. The best gift anyone can give me is to tell me they told someone else about Jesus Christ as Savior.  But, at the same time I know God’s Christmas list has two things. One is to love HIM with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and the other is to LOVE EACH OTHER. It seems all we get is trouble and stress and frustration. What does God get? Does he get our best? Or does He get what’s left over?

Celebrate Christmas the way God celebrates Christmas. Angels declared, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace.” That would be great wouldn’t it? That’s how God celebrated. God had a Christmas party and the Angels came to sing! But instead of praising and thanking we say, “What more can you do for me?” and the problems start to show up; the bills, the family fights. Where’s the peace?

 I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this: There's no such thing as a trouble-free life. Yet there is something inside each one of us that expects things to go smoothly in whatever we do. This would include our “Christmas” celebration. We save, we plan, we make every effort and we don’t want any “bumps in the road” that disrupt us on our way to our goal. In His perfect all-knowing mind, God says that these “speed bumps” are normal and will be used to draw us closer to him if we stay focused on Him. He wants us to slow down a bit even now, at Christmas, and give Him a chance to celebrate.

There are even those who think that when a person becomes a Christian, God removes the struggles from their life. It's not long before disappointment sets in, as they discover that instead of less trouble, they may have more. This could be because God is in the process of cleansing and changing old attitudes and habits that do not fit in a believer's life.

We all want success in what we do. True success is not to be measured in terms of what we can do or not do. Success is not measured in what other can see us doing. True success is how God reveals Himself through us to others.

We are the redeemed sons and daughters of God. We belong to Him. He is our Lord and Savior. He redeemed us by His blood.  He has given us all a trust - a work. The most basic one is the great commission - to share the Gospel. All of us have different calling. Some called to be pastors, some teachers, some evangelists. Not everyone can do these jobs, but we all have something to do. Whatever it is God calls us to do, it is God’s work and we are his servants.

For example, God prepared Paul to give his entire life to serve Christ. He started out as a Jewish religious leader seeking to kill Christ-followers. He met Jesus and went on to establish and encourage many churches, answer difficult theological questions, and write many doctrinal truths of the Bible. Yet his sufferings exceed anything most of us have endured. It seems unfair of God to let Paul go through so much hardship when Paul was obeying God’s plan. But it was the suffering that shaped and prepared him to be such an effective servant of Christ. Without it, he would not have developed the close relationship he had with God or been used so mightily.


What is on Paul’s Christmas list? Maybe it is “Less of me, More of Christ?” Maybe he wants just one more day to share the Gospel? Perhaps it is one more person to pick up the Gospel and bring it to the world.  Possibly he would want one more day to tell one more person about Jesus.
  

Paul faced trouble every step of his life and all because it is more joyful to endure and serve than to retreat and have a pity party for ourselves. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4 that when people curse him, he will bless them. Because that’s what Jesus would do. And when we choose to do that, God celebrates! When people want to beat him up, he will just quietly pray for them. Because that’s what Jesus would do. And when people would insult the name of Jesus, he would speak kindly to them because that’s what Jesus would do.  When we decide to let our actions become the actions Jesus would do,  God celebrates Christmas.

I don't assume to know the struggles anyone is experiencing right now, or what anyone has experienced in the past. But I can say with confidence that God can use it to draw you to Himself. The Gift of Christmas is not the TV from Best Buy. What if the last one is given away to the person in front of you in line?

Every difficulty demands a choice. That’s the gift. You can waste your suffering and be miserable, or you can let the Lord use it to change your attitude and prepare you to become His valuable and effective servant.