As 2017 Comes to a Close

Posted on by Paula

I slipped away for a quiet moment before this evening’s company to read each blessing on my 2017 “blessing calendar.” I started keeping a blessing calendar at least 4 years ago when Cassie (now my daughter-in-law) created a personalized photo calendar for me. It seemed a shame to simply write down our busy schedule on the beautiful calendar and throw it away at the end of the year. I loved that calendar so much that I wanted to find an extra special use for it. So I decided that each night before I went to bed, I would write down at least one blessing that I received that day.

Every year, Cassie continues to create a new calendar for me, and every year, I continue to write down my blessings. Looking for these blessings each day has been very therapeutic. No matter what troubles arise or how bad my day is, there is always something to be thankful for, even if it is simply that I was able to get out of bed or that I was able to make it through the day.

Every year on December 31, I read through each blessing that I wrote down that year and reflect on what a wonderful year it has been. Sometimes, if I’m feeling a bit discouraged, I read through the blessings before the end of the year as well.

So many special memories resurfaced this afternoon as I read through each day on my calendar. Once again, this has been year with both laughter and tears. We’ve had times of celebration as well as times of trials. Whatever the day, or week or month brought, each day still brought blessings. The trials and heartaches are not written down on the calendar. However, when I read the blessings and answered prayers that are recorded, I am reminded of the difficult times while being able to see at the same time that God came through.

I will finish 2017 off this evening surrounded by my family which is one of my biggest blessings. We will eat, play games, talk, laugh and enjoy each other’s company. I will go to bed knowing that I am a very blessed woman and wake up to 2018 looking for the many blessings that I know are in store.

Advent Day 23–Christmas is Love

Posted on by Paula

It’s not about the wrapping paper or if the gift gets wrapped at all. It’s not about what’s inside the box. It’s about the motivation. It’s about the love that prompted the giver to search for a meaningful gift that would make recipient feel special and loved. It’s about the love that comes from our Father and enables us to love like Him.

Let us love each other with the same love manifested when Jesus died on the cross for our sin. It is a love that isn’t dependent on whether or not the recipient is lovable or worthy. It is a selfless love that comes from our obedience to God’s commands. Let us love with the love of Christ regardless of how we are being loved.

I am ever thankful for a God who loved me enough to die for me. I am thankful that when I gave my life to him, he sent his Spirit to live in me. I am thankful that his Spirit enables me to love others with the same love in which he loves me. I am ever thankful to know and experience his love which is the greatest most perfect love there is. I am thankful that my life is forever changed because of him.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” ~1 John 4:7-12

The White Advent Candle–Christmas Day

Posted on by Paula

On Christmas Day, we light the white Advent Candle which represents purity and light. Jesus is pure and sinless, and those who receive Him as their Savior are washed of their sins and made whiter than snow.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). ~Matthew 1:21-23

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” ~Isaiah 1:18

Merry Christmas! I pray that your Christmas will be full because your focus is on Jesus and all that He is, yet simple because He is all you need.

Advent Day 22–Unexpected Act of Love

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I looked down and saw a small hand reaching out to me with a paper poinsettia. “This is for you.” I had never met the little boy before. “Are you sure that you want me to have it?” I asked. He grinned and nodded. “Thank you so much! It’s beautiful,” I said as I placed the sparkly green pipe cleaner ring attached to the flower around my finger.

My heart was touched. I had no relationship with this adorable little boy who had come to class ready to offer me his sweet gift. I had shown him no affection or done anything to deserve this act of love.

At the end of the day, I got to talk with this little boy and get to know him better as he waited for his dad to pick him up after school. We became friends quickly and have gotten to spend more time together during the two visits I have made since that trip. That little boy will always have a special place in my heart and in my prayers.

The gesture he made on the day I met him reminds me of God’s unconditional love for me as well. Even before I had a relationship with God, He prepared a beautiful gift for me. Before I was even born, He had this grand plan to send His Son as a sacrifice for me. I had shown him no affection or done anything to deserve this act of love. Yet, he was ready to offer me this amazing gift and initiate a relationship with me. God has won my heart and blessed me with an intimate relationship with Him through Jesus. He loves you as well. If you do not have a relationship with Him but recognized the gift that He is offering to you, accept His overwhelming gift of love.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~Romans 5:8

Advent Day 22–The “Angel Candle” or “Candle of Love”

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The fourth Advent candle is the “Angel’s Candle” or “Candle of Love.” It reminds us of the angels announcing the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord, and of God’s greatest gift of love.

 “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” ~Luke 2:8-14

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ~John 3:16

Advent 21–Broken Candy Canes and Broken Lives

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My son who is a music teacher was getting ready to take the chorus caroling to all of the class rooms at his school. He gave me a ziplock bag for each class room and asked me to put 25 candy canes in each bag so that the chorus could give every child and teacher a special treat. As I counted them out, I pushed all of the broken ones off to the side.

At the end of the day, I wondered what to do with the broken candy canes. I popped one into my mouth, and it still tasted great despite being broken. I remembered one of the students telling me that they were going to make fudge and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top that evening. The broken candy canes would be perfect for that.  Not only would they taste good, but the peppermint would look pretty too.

The broken candy canes made me think about all the “broken” people I have met. I know people who have been hurt or abused to the point that they have very low self-esteem and can’t see themselves as the beautiful person they are. I can think of people who are so overwhelmed by sorrow, grief, anxiety and depression that they can’t function properly. I have met people who can’t see their wonderful qualities because they are consumed with beating themselves up over the things they aren’t good at. I have listened to people who have bought into a lie that because they are broken, they have no worth or purpose.

My prayer for these broken people is that they would turn to Jesus and find their strength, healing, identity, confidence and purpose in him. I want them to remember that God knit them together in their mothers’ wombs and that they are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139). I want them to know that the Lord who said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), can use their weaknesses to display God’s power as well.  I pray that they would learn that they have a God “who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (1 Corinthians 1:4). I pray that in their brokenness, they will turn to the One whose body was broken and whose blood was shed and that they will lay down their lives and find comfort, healing, peace and purpose in him.

Advent 20–God Came Down

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God’s people were suffering in slavery and crying out. God heard their cries and decided to come down to rescue them. He chose to call Moses and work through him. However, Moses had a lot of excuses as to why He couldn’t be a part of God’s plan. Moses sounded something like this, “I’m nobody…. I don’t know what to say…. What if they don’t believe me?… I am slow of speech and tongue…. Please, send someone else.”

Of course, God had all of the answers. He would be with Moses, and Moses should tell the people that it was he who sent Moses. He reminded Moses that this wasn’t Moses’ job but that he would display his power through Moses. God made it clear that he is the one who created Moses and his tongue, and he would help him speak. God worked through Moses to rescue his people from their misery and their slavery.

Years later, God came down through his Son, Jesus, to rescue his people from their slavery to sin.  Jesus lived a perfect life and paid for our sins by dying on the cross. He rose from the dead and before ascending into heaven, he left instructions,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…. (Matthew 28:18-20a)

The beauty of God’s story is that just as God called an unlikely, ordinary guy like Moses, he has also called each of us no matter how unlikely we or others view ourselves. That’s right, God has called you! Just like Moses, you may have a list of excuses as well, but Jesus didn’t leave us hanging helplessly with his final instructions. He finished verse 20 with these words,

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

After Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit. When we accept Jesus as our Savior and our Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. The Holy Spirit will always be with us, give us the power and give us the words.

Just as God was with Moses, he is with us. God wants to reach down through you to rescue his people. Look around. Where is God at work, and whose heart is he working on? As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, it’s the perfect time to share with others who God is and what he has done. Will you obey his call?

Advent Day 19–His Spirit Lives in You

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The sign at the little country church caught my eye when I was on a road trip one day. It was obvious that the establishment date of 33 AD on the sign was not talking about the building it leaned against.

The Church isn’t a building; the Church is the group of people who trust and follow Jesus. The people of the Church are scattered all over the world but joined together in unity through the Holy Spirit who lives in each individual. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NLT), “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”

Christmas is so much more than celebrating the birth of a baby. That baby, Jesus, was born to offer himself as a sacrifice on the cross and to save us from our sin that separates us from God. I am thankful for the great sacrifice Jesus made and that he rose from the dead so that if I die to myself, I receive new life—eternal life—in him. I am thankful that he ascended back into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father and that he poured out his Spirit to dwell in those who choose to follow him.

As we celebrate the miracle of a Baby born to a virgin, let us celebrate as well the miracle of his resurrection, the miracle of his Spirit living in us, the miracle of the powerful work that the Spirit does in our lives as he transforms us to be more like Jesus and the miracle of the Holy Spirit working through us, the Church, to share God’s love and message of hope with others.

During this Advent season when we are preparing our hearts for the coming of Jesus, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Let us not take for granted his great sacrifice but remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “…you were bought at a price….”

Advent Day 18–Sweet Cravings

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There are plenty of sweets to go around at Christmas time. It’s that time of year when families all across the country join in the tradition of making cookies, breads, candies and other goodies. Not only do they make these treats for home but they also make them to share with others. Those with a sweet tooth need not search long to find a way to get their sugar fix.

Our physical bodies may crave sugar, but our souls have cravings as well. The Bible says that God’s words are sweeter than honey. As we feed on God’s words and really dig into their goodness, they resonate in our innermost being. We find them delightful, satisfying and life-changing when we take our time to really relish them and let them digest deep within our souls.

They are sweet not only as we consume them but equally as sweet as we share them with others. God’s words are just too incredible to keep them to ourselves. As we share our sweets with others this year, let’s share God’s words of truth, love and life as well. The cookies we deliver will probably not last very long, but God’s words will last for eternity.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” ~Psalm 119:103

Advent Day 17–Treasures

Posted on by Paula

Ah, Christmastime! I remember writing my Christmas list as a child and continuing to add to that list. I could hardly wait until Christmas morning to see what was inside all of the beautifully wrapped boxes!

As an adult, I invest hours of my time searching for just the right gifts for family and friends. I’m always anxious to watch the recipient open their gift; I feel great when I chose a gift that the recipient loves. However, even the very best gifts that I wrap up and put under the tree won’t last forever. Some of those gifts will break or wear out over time. New clothes may not fit after all of the great holiday food, and if they do, they probably won’t be in style for too long. “Must have” toys, video games and movies will become boring after a while. Newer versions of electronic devices will be on the market before the user can totally master the ones they receive at Christmas.

How many gifts of Christmas past are simply gathering dust or taking up space in a cluttered closet? Maybe some of our “must-have” items aren’t really as important as we think. After all, we can’t take any of our belongings with us when our earthly bodies die, and our belongings can’t buy our way into heaven. In the end, Jesus is all that matters.

There is nothing wrong with giving or receiving gifts. In fact, giving gifts can be a reflection of God’s love and all that he blesses us with. He has given us so much, and it is only natural for us to want to give to others as well. The problem is when our gifts or possessions become more important to us than Jesus.

In Luke 18:18-29, a man asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life; he had kept God’s commands. Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The man became sad; wealth was the one thing that kept him from following Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t ask all of us to sell our belongings, but he does want to be our greatest desire. He doesn’t want anything to get in our way of following him. He wants our hearts to be set on eternal life with him in heaven and on sharing that message with others. How many precious souls will gain eternal life because you told them the Good News of the Gospel?

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ~Jesus , Matthew 6:19-21