Babies crying during the sermon: A response

Earlier today, I ran across a blog post by Jon Acuff regarding babies crying during the sermon. The link is here.
Babies crying during the sermon. | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff
I was so disturbed, I actually left a comment. (Not something I would normally do, by the way.)

This is what I wrote:

The gospels DO seem to record that some parents took kids with them when they went to listen to Jesus. And when Jesus recognized that there were adults (disciples) who were trying to keep them out of the way, Jesus SCOLDED them!
As a pastor, I LOVE that there are kids in church. The church I'm in right now does have a kids church about 1/2 way through the service, but not everyone sends their kids. And yes, there has been a crying baby a time or two. And my response is always "I believe the church assembled NEEDS to be able to hear the sounds of life! It is a pity to have a church that cannot hear them!'
If the message we are sharing is really all that important to real life, then that message better be able to withstand normal sounds of life. Including a baby crying.

Now that my blood is boiling, I'd like to know what some others do and what you thought after reading his blog posting.

What is the Church?

These are my notes for Sunday, July 7th's sermon at the Clarks Mills United Methodist Church (Clarks Mills, PA).

Please understand these are SPEAKING notes, which means they have commas, elipses, spacing, italics, and bold print to help me, the speaker, to remember to pause or emphasize certain areas. NO attempt has been made to properly punctuate or to use rules for proper grammar. 

ALSO, I refer to God in accordance with the rules of English which speak of masculine pronouns being used to denote masculine objects or objects which have no gender. (It is the same reason I use the Spanish la (the) with casa (house)... not that "the house" is a feminine object, but rather because that's what the rules of Spanish specify.) I do NOT believe God is a man or male in substance, any more than I believe a house is feminine, even in Spanish.)

SERMON: “What is the Church?”


There is a story about a new pastor who is just out of seminary at his very first church.
First week…preaches about helping the poor and reaching out to the needy…


PEOPLE'S RESPONSE?     “GREAT sermon…”


2nd week… again, a great sermon… but it’s word for word the same thing as week one…


3rd week…SAME sermon again…


Emergency board meeting is called to address this problem!


When asked, the pastor’s response: I didn’t want to move on until we had done the stuff from the first sermon… Wanted to wait until people “got it” & “did it”


OBVIOUSLY, the pastor and the people had different ideas about what the church was supposed to be about…

The people wanted a nice “presentation” each week… The pastor wanted to see people reach out. Nobody had moved from their seats… the gospel didn’t really affect them…

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One of the ongoing struggles between pastors and their people, between different denominations of churches, between the theologians and seminarians alike, is how exactly do you define “church.”

IN SOME PLACES, THE CHURCH IS SET APART BY A FAMOUS DEFINITION THAT SAYS THE CHURCH IS WHERE YOU GO TO RECEIVE THE SACRAMENTS… That’s pretty much the definition you hear from the I.R.S. as well… a “real” church has the administration of the sacraments and a “real” pastor is one who has those “sacerdotal” duties… he or she administers the sacraments. If that’s it, then why do we have YF groups and PrimeTimers or daycare or United Methodist Women or missions? And why bother with sermons and music? Just come and receive the sacraments…

And the church would never be outside these walls around us.

Thank God, there’s more to the church than just the sacramental duties… Those things happen, but it’s not the whole reason we’re here.

IN SOME PLACES, THE CHURCH HAS BECOME A SOCIAL GROUP… You go to church because that’s where you meet some good people that are fairly trustworthy and would make good friends… or future spouses… or potential customers for your business.

In reality, that’s not so much “church” but rather a group like the “Rotary” or the “Grange” or the “Lions Club” or any number of other very good, very respectable organizations organized for good friendships and community service…

Thank God, there’s more to the church than just friendships and community service projects… Those things happen, but it’s not the whole reason we’re here.

IN SOME PLACES, THE CHURCH SEEMS LIKE NOTHING MORE THAN A ‘PROPER GENTLEMEN’S CLUB’ … the members of their group felt like they were “above” those who weren’t members… you had to have the right credentials and the right skin color and the right status to become a member… and if you were a member of the right club then you were really something…. Prestige, honor, respect… and power… were yours…

In some places, it seems the church has become like that… If you belong to OUR church then you’re REALLY going to Heaven… If you are baptized the right way or do communion the way we like it, then you’re on your way…. If you line up with our doctrines in the right way and If you say the right prayer with all of the right words in the right order, and know exactly when to stand up or sit down, then you’re one of us…

…AND IF YOU DON’T, then you’re obviously going to Hell… and it serves you right!

Thank God, there’s more to the church than just doctrines and beliefs and prayers… Those things happen, but it’s not the whole reason we’re here.

IN SOME PLACES, THE CHURCH IS DISTINGUISHED BY WHETHER OR NOT THEY WORSHIP IN THE RIGHT WAY… Do you sing the old songs or new songs… (and the “old songs” might be hymns or for others the “old songs” are more like Gregorian chants out of the Middle Ages… and “new songs” might mean choruses written last week or a 500 year old hymn like “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”) Do we have the right rituals? DO we do things in the right order? Do we use the right version of the Bible…

Is worship led by the right people… maybe it’s led by a liturgist, or the organist, or the pianist, or a worship team, or maybe even the preacher himself…

But in that kind of church, it had better be done right!

Thank God, there’s more to the church than just pleasing people with our rituals and music… Those things happen, but it’s not the whole reason we’re here.

I’D LIKE YOU TO TURN WITH ME TO THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW to the record of one of Jesus’ encounters with the Pharisees… and I believe we’ll see one of the main reasons we’re here as a church… Listen and see if you can spot Jesus’ example for the church in this passage… FROM Matthew 9:9-13...

SCRIPTURE READING: MATTHEW 9: 9-13
Now understand, it’s the Pharisees that really get rankled by Jesus when he doesn’t do things the way they think they should be done… They spend their time at the synagogue, and later the Temple, watching to see what He’s going to do wrong next… They’re watching for mistakes… They’re focusing on form alone… and they find exactly what they’re looking for… Because Jesus couldn’t care less about the form of their worship… Or their rules… Because Jesus is concerned about the relationship with God the Father. That’s supposed to be the focus of worship… Experiencing God… connecting with Him as we praise HIM… and as we pray to Him… as we meet with Him and turn our thoughts to Him.

And if someone comes into worship with a need… spiritually or emotionally or even physically, then as they connect with God the Healer, Jesus sees it as perfectly acceptable to heal them…

And if they show up and have made a mess of their lives and are broken hearted or have had lives full of sin, then Jesus welcomes them into his presence… Because that’s his specialty… He is known as one who hangs out with sinners…

Jesus’ answer to those Pharisees, the religious leaders of His day, when they accused Him of eating and drinking with sinners is one of my favorite Biblical images of the church. The writer of Mark tells of Jesus’ answer this way: His answer simply was: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

I used to be an orderly in the Olean General Hospital and worked a few months between terms of school at the St. Vincent Health Center in Erie. When I get to this passage here in Matthew, and the corresponding spots in Mark 2 and Luke 5, the questions and concerns about “what is the church?“ start to fade away… BECAUSE THE CHURCH, AT LEAST IN PART, IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE A HOSPITAL!

In a hospital, there are supposed to be sick people and they are tended for by nursing staff and doctors who are subject to the very same maladies and destructive habits as the patients… and yet the sick can still go to a hospital to find healing and hope.

In a hospital, often the healing doesn’t come about in the same way the patient expected it to at their arrival, and sometimes, some people never are completely healed.

The church is like that….

The church is supposed to be a place to meet the Healer…. The one we call the Great Physician…. And those of us who man the stations and work the desk, are like those doctors and nursing staff at the hospital… we DON’T know everything that will cure or help and we may fall into the very same sins and addictions that you have come here to seek healing for… But together, like at the hospital, we the ones who are experiencing healing can help reach out to those who still need healing.

And that healing might come in the least expected ways, through some of the least expected people… but in the church… there’s hope for healing!

If the church is like a hospital, then we are called to be both a welcoming community and a healing community. We cannot help heal, if those in need of healing don’t feel welcomed to come in.

As a pastor, like a doctor in the hospital, I see my task to be to help the “patient” recognize the extent of their illness or injury and how they might begin to be healed. And just like in a hospital, I can help to facilitate that healing, but it will be God and the sick person that actually do the healing.

A COUPLE OF OTHER SIMILARITIES JUMP OUT AT ME AS WELL… You see, in order to be treated in a hospital, a patient has to actually physically show up at the hospital. ALSO, the patient has to actually recognize and admit that they really are sick or wounded and in need of healing.

A patient healing in the hospital also has to allow, and participate with, the life sustaining and restoring remedies doled out by the physicians and therapists.

In short, the one in need of healing must be willing to be healed.

Without that initial desire to be healed, to be made whole, no healing can happen, no matter how open and welcoming the hospital is.

I find the same to be true in the church. The church has opened its doors and welcomed all to come in.

For the one who suffers because of their own sin, repentance and a willingness to change will be the starting point for healing.

For one who has suffered a woundedness through the sins of others, the healing process will be more complicated, yet still possible, as issues of justice and forgiveness are sorted out and resolved.

Either way, healing can be painful, and still requires a willing participation by the ‘patient.’ But without a recognition of the need for healing and a willingness to participate in the healing process, there is little the church really has to offer that one.

That doesn’t limit anyone’s coming to the church, any more than not admitting illness or injury block’s one from visiting a hospital. There just simply is no way for the hospital to treat a visitor with its healing remedies, because the hospital visitor doesn’t allow themselves to become a patient.

To be healed, requires participation, not visitation or spectatorship.

Likewise, in order to receive all that the church has to offer, we must participate, in the remedies of repentance and forgiveness, (Ps. 51: 16-17).

As a pastor then, like that doctor, I must recognize that sin is a reality and not turn a blind eye when I am aware of sin, whether it is done by, or to, one of the “patients” or in our case, one of the parishioners.

Now understand, there’s a stark warning goes hand in hand with this view though: if you do not like being around people who are sick or wounded, then you really should never plan on going to a hospital for any reason... or to a church for that matter.

For these are places where the ill and injured are not only welcome, but they are the very ones who are expected.

The very existence of the church, like the hospital, is designed for the weak to become strong, the wounded to become well, and the sick to be restored.

Hospitals are not associations of whole people trying to keep from being injured, weak, or sick, although there are ways the hospital can help facilitate those very activities after healing has begun.

In the same way, the church is not designed to be a place where “good people” avoid sin, sickness, and woundedness, although once healing has begun, the church can assist each other in remaining free from inflicting or receiving the negative effects caused by sin.

But rather, a hospital, and a church, are both designed as places where sick people go.

A further comparison is possible between the church and a hospital. In a hospital, because virtually all are there have something wrong with them, it is almost always a place where you can accidentally be infected with someone else’s sickness, and where the wounded become even more susceptible to developing illness along with their injury.

Staff and patients alike must be on guard against the further transmission of disease. The church as well, being filled with sinners, runs the risk of “rubbing off on someone else” with their particular sinful tendency, thus creating more sickness, hurt, or injury from within the very midst of the healing community we call the Church.

So what does that mean for us today?

It means that we have to be very intentional about our ministry… Our focus can never be just about details of worship services or particular programs… Our focus must always be experiencing God ourselves and helping others come to that place too… For that, my friends, is a place of healing.

It also means that church is “messy” sometimes…. Things don’t go as planned… just ask an emergency room nurse about how often things go as planned in an E.R… but by their very flexibility to help each person wherever they are, in whatever situation they are in, they are agents of healing…

Can we as the church, be that flexible? Can we meet people where they are… or must they line up with the way we want to do things? Can they come “Just as I am” like we’re always singing?

Ultimately, there is more to the church than just being like a hospital, but one of our traditions I’m told is to not have three hour worship services… so this is enough for this day. But on and off, as the Holy Spirit leads, we’ll be talking throughout this next year about God’s leading and God’s expectations for us as a church… and for every church. I haven’t been here long enough to know what does and doesn’t apply to us yet, so be assured I’m not throwing darts at anyone…

But it just seems fair from the very beginning of our time together that you know and understand that part of the vision and burden that the Lord’s placed in my heart, is to see the church as a place of healing where people are accepted and where all can encounter this Healing God we serve.

For that is WHAT the church is… people worshipping God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And as we do that, we will also find healing.

How do we make sure people see us as a place to find healing… rather than just a place to play softball or eat great food or to take care of kids?

How can we reach out and make everyone feel welcome here?

I believe it is by doing all of those other things WITH A HEART OF DRAWING PEOPLE INTO THE CHURCH ASSEMBLED SO THEY TOO CAN FIND THE HEALER.

Jesus offered healing… and people who needed healing came to him because they knew him… and people who needed healing knew him because he hung out with those people… And hanging out with Jesus as one of his followers was like being in a hospital emergency room… never predictable, never boring, always surrounded by the injured and the sick… the really, really sick…

And that’s what I believe we the church are to do in order to really be the church.

And that’s not just a preacher thing… any more than a hospital is just about one doctor… Rather, we all together, open our hearts, and our minds, and our doors to those who need Jesus… and in so doing we find ourselves welcoming those who need help and there’s room there for you and me as well in that group isn’t there?

WHAT is the church?

The church is a lot like a hospital!

A Deeper Understanding of Worship... It Even Smells!

My wife, my son, and I went to an AWESOME worship experience!

Held at the Galloway UMC near Franklin, PA, it was a little bit concert, but a lot more of worship… yet not like a “contemporary” or “traditional” worship service.

Worship leaders Nic & Rachel Billman, of Shores of Grace ministries, were the primary vocalists, and Nic was clearly the team leader.

During the course of the evening, they shared from John 12:1-3, where Mary (the sister of Lazarus) came to where Jesus was and anointed his feet with a very expensive perfume. And Scripture says “The house was filled with its fragrance.” (NLT)

The Billmans explained that, as a church, we need to have our times of worship be like that time of anointing. Like Mary, what we do for Jesus so permeates the very air around us that even after we leave, people can still tell we’ve been with Jesus. What do we do in worship?? Is it about this person’s favorite hymn or that chorus those people like so much? Is it really supposed to be about the responses or the ways to commune or when the offering is taken?

NO! Worship is something WE do FOR Jesus! It is SO much like Mary anointing Jesus’ feet. She took a jar of “nard” (some kind of perfume) and lavishly gave it all for Him! In fact, I remember reading once that the cost of that nard probably would be akin to a year’s worth of paychecks for one of us now-a-days. She gave her all! She gave her best!

That’s the kind of worship we need in our times of gathering as the church. We so focus on him and expressing our love to Him, that there is a fragrance of sorts that clings to us as we go back to our everyday world after church services. But that requires that we give our best and give our all when we go to worship.

How? How about by doing what the Bible already tells us: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and come into his courts with praise?

Far too often, we have had a struggle to get out the door just to make it to the church building on time. (Especially if you have kids it seems!) We have had words with our spouse, or we had to jump the car battery, or ran into a grouchy person at the gas station en route. And of course there’s Mrs. McGillycutty who has that hideous hat on in the pew ahead of you. How can you enjpy worship with stuff like that going on?

And of course, then we bring all of that with us as we enter his gates and come into his courts. And so the worship experience is pretty flat for us.

The gathered worshippers in Galloway this evening were challenged to let all of that stuff go… and to offer our very best to God as we worshipped in listening and, occasionally, singing.

As we prepare for another Sunday morning worship time, let’s start the worship BEFORE we walk into the church building… Sing in your heart, think through (maybe even as a family) how God has been in your midst as you have travelled through this past week… and THANK Him.

Worship doesn’t come from a bulletin… it comes in with a worshipper. And as we lavishly pour out our worship on our Lord, we will walk away looking and talking and smelling like Jesus!

Teach Us To Number Our Days

This is my pastor's letter for our church's January/February newsletter.

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I like the story of a man who accidentally calls a wrong 1-800 number and gets GOD. After being apologetic about wasting God’s time with a wrong number, God says that’s OK, what we humans think is a long time is really almost nothing to him. So the man says: “Let me get this right: 1000 of our years are like nothing more than a minute to you?” And God says “yes.”


“So what money?” says the man. He continues: “Is it true that you really own the cattle on a thousand hills and that everything we could possibly ever own is really yours?” Again, God responds with a “yes.”

Feeling a bit braver, he pushes on. He says, “So a million dollars to you is like nothing more than a penny, huh?” God says “That’s right.”

The man then asks “Hey God, I got a favor to ask. Can I have a penny?” To which God responds: “In a minute.”

PSALM 90:10 says: “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty.”

The most we can hope for, as far as our age goes, is about 70 years; maybe 80 or so if we’re exceptionally strong in health. And back in verse 4 of Psalm 90 we read “For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.”

Our full-life, in God’s reckoning of eternity, is like the morning fog: it’s gone pretty quickly without a trace. But what does 70 years give us… what value does it have?

Depends on what we put into it.

There are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year, which means we each have 8,760 hours in a year. If you multiply that number of hours in a year by a life span of, let’s go ahead and say 70, you get 613,200 hours in a 70 year lifespan.

BY THE WAY, by following the math out, a 70 year lifespan would have 36,792,000 minutes (36 MILLION…) OR 2,207,520,000 seconds (2 BILLION, 207 MILLION…)

So, since our time is our most precious commodity, we ALL could be considered to be MILLIONARES! (or even BILLIONAIRES). So how do we spend our time? Into what purposes and activities do we invest our time?

To start with, the average American person, in a 70 year lifespan, will have spent an average of 178,360 hours just sleeping. (7 hours/day x 7 days/ week x 52 wk/yr x 70 yr = 178,360 hours of sleep in your lifetime. To make it easier to process, you can take that number of sleeping hours (178,360) and divide it by the number of hours in a year (8760) and that means you sleep about 20 years of a 70 year lifespan.

That same person will have spent 145,600 hours of their life working, which turns out to be 17 years spent working out of 70.

That person will also spend an average of 76,440 hours of their life eating! (Assuming an hour for every meal (that’ll count your snacks) X 3 meals a day X 7 days a week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 76,440 hours of eating. That’s almost 9 years of eating!

Time spent watching television is also insightful: 3 hours of TV each day = another 9 years spent just watching T.V. !

Now, when it comes to church, there’s a bit of a problem because the AVERAGE American simply does NOT go to church! So for the average American it boils down to ZERO hours a year.

But, for OUR benefit, we’ll assume the Average American Church going Christian will have spent 6/10 of a year worshipping God.(Assuming an hour and a half each week, giving you time to get in here and get out plus the normal hour and fifteen minutes we usually set aside for the worship service.)

NOW, some reading this are going to challenge me in this. They might say: “That’s not fair, preacher! I go to church more often than that, I’m a really committed Christian!’”

Assuming that’s true, we’ll take you Sunday morning worship time PLUS EVERY Sunday School Class you’ve ever attended, PLUS EVERY Prayer Meeting scheduled, PLUS EVERY Bible Study that takes place and we can bump your weekly Church worship time up to 5 hours in a week. What’s that give us? (5 hours per week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 18,200 hours in worship in your lifetime = about 2 years spent worshipping God.

Add to those numbers the results of a Survey of 6000 people polled in 1988, reported by U.S. News and World Report:

In a lifetime the average American will spend:

Six months sitting at stoplights

Eight months opening junk mail

One year looking for misplaced objects

2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls

4 years doing housework

5 years waiting in line

Reader’s Digest takes this even further and says that the Average American will spend 6 years looking for misplaced stuff.

OH GOD… Teach us to number our days……..

As we look back over this list of time spent, we can see how our little uses of time add up to YEARS throughout the course of a lifetime, so we need to ask God to help us number our days… to make the most of our time.

Who is our God? Our God is the one to whom we give our time and attention.

OH GOD… “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

-Psalm 90:12

A tune that's been running through my mind...

This Christmas, I find myself returning again and again to the carol: Angels from the Realms of Glory. I ‘hear’ it in my head, I sometimes catch myself humming it, I was even whistling it one day! But I never sing it (except during church) because I know the music, not the words.

Today I actually looked it up in our hymnal (#220). And now I love this song even more!

As a pastor, I get tired of songs or poems or readings that just tell you something… but that’s it. You know, the reading done because it’s this holiday or that and Mrs. McGillicuddy likes to have that 52 stanza poem read every year on that day. Or the song that says “I can’t wait until I can tell you about my special day…” and then never does tell you about it.

This song is SO different from those descriptions! First of all, it is a story song… almost a ballad kind of idea. If you take all the verses of this song, you have the high points of a complete story (in this case, of Jesus’ birth). This isn’t one of those songs where you can easily get away with just singing the first and the last verse! Or you’ll miss a big piece of the story!

Secondly, I like the way the song is actually addressed to someone. While many hymns and ‘churchy’ songs are addressed to God, many times they aren’t. Think of ‘How Great Thou Art’ where the whole thing is addressed to God, as opposed to a song like ‘Amazing Grace’ which speaks about God and God’s grace.

This song is aimed at those that will encounter God… It is addressed to the angels who were in the primary role of being spectator, to the shepherds who were in their usual role of being the outcasts, the sages (or wise men) who were the intellectual (and probably even rich!) people of their day, and the saints… which is the very term the apostle Paul used whenever he spoke of people who followed Jesus and accepted him as their Lord and Savior. THAT’s US!!! We encounter God, through the birth and life of Jesus, in just the same ways that those shepherds, angels, and even sages did. We come and we worship him. We give him the gift of our attention and our presence. We make him more important than anything else.

This Christmas, I pray that we all come to a deeper understanding of OUR role in the Christmas story. The angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and even the Holy Family itself are all incomplete without us… the ones who believe in Jesus and accept Him as OUR Lord and OUR Savior. We are part of the Christmas story!

And thousands of years later, the invitation still calls out to all…

“Come & Worship…
Come & Worship…
Worship Christ The Newborn King!”




Christmas Eve service starts at 7:00 on Dec. 24th... Come & Worship With us!

Christmas Tree Travail

This was the pastor's letter for Christmas at our church.
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The Mix family’s Christmas tree has been a great source of amusement for us… because our cat, appropriately named Noel, keeps climbing and attempting to undecorate the tree. The truth is we don’t have many ornaments up yet… but we did put up the Hallmark Starship Enterprise decoration that Gay bought me back in the early-90’s. It plugs in and lights up.

Although not particularly Christmas-themed, it was a Christmas gift back before we were in ministry, when our family was just Gay and I. And it’s become a little part of our family tradition. The point is: the little blinking light on the starship has entranced the cat. She climbs and bats at it with her paws. She has tried to bite at it. She has successfully dislodged it several times. (I can almost hear Captain Picard shouting “Battle Stations… We’re Under Attack!”)

But I’ve also seen a spiritual lesson here as well. As Christians, we do more than just put up Christmas decorations, right? Hopefully, we put them up to also be a way of drawing attention to the real story behind Christmas… the message that Christ has come and God is With Us. The parties, the trees, the lights, the tinsel, and even Hallmark ornaments, are merely ways to help get people interested in Christmas… and then we, through our personal involvement, can share the rest of the story.

And like our cat goes out of her way to investigate our Christmas tree, our friends and neighbors (and kids and co-workers) are just as keenly aware of what we do. Just showing the Christmas spirit can be a ministry. People can get interested in what we’re doing… and maybe even want to know more.

What are you and your family doing this Christmas to involve your family in the celebration of Christmas? Can the people around you see and feel the joy you have in your music, your decorations, your giving, and the festivities you choose?

How about joining us, and invite someone to come with you, to experience the rest of the story this Christmas? Join us for Sunday worship at 8:15 am, 10:45 am, or 7:00 pm or for Christmas Eve worship at 7:00 pm, December 24th. Let’s make worship one of those festivities that become part of the ongoing family traditions of our Christmas.

Let’s celebrate Christ together!

ADVENT 5: Christmas Eve

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Reynoldsville
ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING LITURGY
December 24, 2007

READ SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 9:6-7



READING: In this prophecy, Isaiah offers hope to the people of Galilee of the Gentiles… for out of them will come a great light shining in the darkness… a Deliverer to free them from oppression. And with those famous words: "For unto us a son is born…" God let them know that the Deliverer would be one of their own… Born into the chosen people of God who would know them and their ways and understand them in their entirety.



But the oppression the Deliverer would set them free from wasn’t just a political system… as evidenced by the names God ascribes to the Deliverer… "He will be called WONDERFUL COUNSELOR… MIGHTY GOD… EVERLASTING FATHER… and PRINCE OF PEACE." They didn’t yet realize it, but God was telling them in advance that this Deliverer would come to rule a kingdom of hearts… and set them free from the oppression of evil… And destroy the power of Satan.



As we light this last candle in our Advent Wreath, the white candle in the center that we call the CHRIST CANDLE, we remember that Jesus came as Deliverer… for them and for us… to deliver them, and us, from the oppression of evil. Thousands of years have passed, and Jesus still offers to deliver people from the effects of sin and evil… if we will allow him.
Let’s make this Christmas complete by inviting Jesus to be our Lord, our Savior, our Friend, and… our Deliverer… Let’s allow Him to reign as King and Lord of our lives.



PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we welcome you to our church, our homes, and our lives. Reign on the thrones of our hearts as our King and Lord. Deliver us from evil and help us to follow you for the rest of our lives. AMEN.

Advent 4

This is the liturgy for our fourth week of Advent Candle Lighting.

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ADVENT 4

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 9:2

READING: Isaiah offered hope to those who lived in times of spiritual darkness… There was a LIGHT that was coming… and that light would shine forth and pierce the darkness. All in darkness would be able to see the light… even those that actually lived in the midst of great darkness… even the ones that lived in the shadow of death would see the light.

Hope WOULD come!

The light WOULD shine!

HALLELUJAH!!!

As we light this fourth Advent candle, we remember that although Isaiah’s prophecy spoke about Jesus coming some 2000 years ago, it also speaks of His second coming which is yet to happen. And like that first coming, He will come as the light when there is a time of great darkness… and everyone living in darkness will have a chance to see the light… Even those who live in the darkest recesses of the darkest, most grievous shadows of death itself.

Hope IS coming!

The light WILL shine!

HALLELUJAH!!!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you said you were the light of the world and then, for those who follow you, you said we also would be light. Lord, as we live our lives we recognize more and more the deepness of the darkness around us. We need to be light like we’ve never been before… sharing the good news that YOU love us and want to save us. But ultimately Lord, it’s YOUR light that we hope for and wait for. You are coming! HALLELUJAH!!! AMEN.

ADVENT 3

This is the third reading for our Advent Candle Lighting.
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SCRIPTURE: Haggai 2:6-7

READING: In today’s Scripture lesson, the prophet Haggai shares God’s warnings about upcoming events for the people of ancient Jerusalem about rebuilding the city and His temple. But almost lost in the midst of this old prophecy is a reference to the Messiah who would one day come and be known as “The Desire Of All Nations.”

This week, as we light our third candle, we notice that it is not purple like the candles of the last two weeks. This time our candle is pink, reminding us of the HOPE and the JOY that we can look forward to in the midst of Messiah’s coming.

Jesus is the very one that All Nations Desire… even though they may not yet be aware of it yet. The peace and hope and joy the world longs for will only come when Jesus Himself comes back.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You are the Desire of all nations and we pray that you will help us to be ones that desire you personally. Come quickly, Lord, Come quickly. AMEN.

ADVENT 2

This was the Advent Candle Lighting liturgy from this past Sunday.
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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 7:14

READING: In this second prophecy about the coming Messiah, the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, has just delivered God’s message of hope to Judah’s King Ahaz… Judah will NOT be conquered by the enemies that are threatening them. God offers to give King Ahaz a sign that he’ll keep his promise… and says that Ahaz can ask for any sign he wants that God will really deliver His people.

Ahaz has always tried to be non-committal with Isaiah, trying to play it safe, and so he tries that same thing now with God… he refuses to ask for a sign… even though God has commanded him to.

So God picks… The sign will be a virgin who will conceive and then bear a son. And as that child grows, the people will be delivered from their enemies. In Ahaz’s day, there was a partial fulfillment of this. A young woman who was a virgin when Isaiah spoke these words, truly did conceive and bear a son… but it was in the normal way that sons were born. And before that son was grown, the people actually were delivered from their enemies … the two kings that Ahaz had so feared, were dead.

But God also had a deeper message of a longer lasting deliverance in mind when he prophecied to Ahaz through Isaiah: There would be another virgin who would conceive… as a virgin! And her son would not only bring deliverance to His people, but he would actually be the deliverer!

So many times in Scripture, and in our daily lives as well, we think we understand what God means and what He has said. But quite often, we only understand a portion of His word… only a part of His will is truly understood. As we light the second purple candle in our Advent Wreath, we do well to remember the apostle Paul’s words from centuries later, when he wrote "Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known." Only when Christ comes back again, will we finally be able to see the big picture the way God sees it… and has seen it all along.

PRAYER: Father God, we read your word and hear your message, and we think we understand your will and your ways. But just like Ahaz and Isaiah, Paul and the prophets, we only see a part of what you are doing. We don’t understand your ways or what you’re trying to do. Teach us to trust You and Your Holy Spirit as you lead us and guide us… whether it makes sense to us or not. AMEN

ADVENT 1

In our church worship services yesterday, we lit one candle of our Advent Wreath as part of the celebration of the first Sunday of Advent. Here is the devotion I wrote to accompany it. (We are using the New Living Translation for these devotions each week).

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ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING
First Sunday of Advent

SCRIPTURE: Malachi 4:1-6

READING: In today’s prophecy about the coming of Christ, God promises His people that when Christ comes down in what we now call Christmas, He will deal with the wicked. Also, those who “fear His name” will personally encounter Christ and find that He will also bring healing to their lives… healing for physical ailments, healing for mental illnesses, healing for damaged emotions, and even healing for broken relationships.

Depending on which group of people we choose to associate ourselves with, either the wicked or those who fear His name, determines how we will encounter Christ when He comes.

Part of the promise of God found here in Malachi, is the promise that God will send warnings ahead of time and send a messenger to alert us that it’s almost time for Christ to come. When Christ first came, that messenger was John the Baptist. Today, the warnings are all around us… radio, TV, books, preachers, and the written words of God found in Scripture.

As we light this candle today on the first Sunday of Advent, we remember that He is coming again… and soon! And we will meet Him when he comes… as our conqueror, if we are wicked, or as our healer, if we fear His name and serve Him as His people.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus… You are the Sun of Righteousness and you come to offer us healing, even as you prepare to destroy evil. Help us to be like John the Baptist as we warn our friends and neighbors that You are on Your way… and they get to choose how they’ll meet you. AMEN.

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Here are a couple of websites that I found helpful in explaining more about Advent Wreaths.

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/adwreath.html

http://www.crivoice.org/cyadvent.html