Joy is our theme for the third Sunday of Advent. When we light the candle on that Sunday, we share about the joy of the Lord. Paul writes to us to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, and yet many times, he was in tremendous struggles while he was writing about joy. As a matter of fact, many times, he was actually in prison for his faith. How can we have joy in the midst of such a dark world? Mary teaches us that if we obey, then truly the joy of the Lord is our strength. As we continue to approach the celebration of the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, we raise the question of where is Joy? Recently, I watched one of the Christmas classics again, and that beautiful song was shared about trying to find true Christmas. I talked to the kids at the preschool this last week and explained to them that the word itself, Christmas, means Christ gathering, or the mass, or multitudes of Christian Fellowship. Can we not find joy in his presence? Maybe that should be our focus this week. Is there a way that you can enter into his presence and truly experience joy, even in the midst of struggles and difficulties that you may be facing today? I believe there is. Draw close to him, and he will draw close to you. Blessings on this third week of Advent.

“Christ the King” is always celebrated before the first Sunday in Advent, which is the beginning of four Sundays preceding Christmas. We always look at the kingship of the baby Jesus. In Revelation, it is clear that the author is speaking of the Christ, who is Jesus, and makes it clear that he is the Alpha and Omega, which is the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. The New Testament was written in Greek. Therefore, our passage this week comes from Revelation 1:4–8. This passage also says that all will mourn because of him. I’m reminded of the second beatitude in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, and throughout his teaching, he expressed comfort for people who come to him, and he would ease their burden. I think the symbolism of mourning is the repenting from our selfish sins as we are turning to the Lord. I love also the futuristic promise that he is coming in the clouds. We know someday there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 tells us that we will meet him in the air when he returns; even those who pierced him will know him, and we believe that is a reflection upon the Jewish people regarding the Old and New Testament. My question this week is, is he your king? I think whatever or whoever we submit to in life is the king of our life. It can be ourselves, and that can fall into so many factions, like things that we desire just for us, like money, power, and influence :-). Maybe another way of asking the same question would be, who is in control of your life? As we enter this Advent season and head to the manger where God has broken into our world and given us his presence, may you truly experience the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Blessings.

"The Baptizer” The second Sunday in our four-Sunday cycle of Advent focuses on John the Baptist. He was the fulfillment from the last book of the Old Testament that before the Messiah would come, one would come in the spirit of Elijah. Jesus made it clear that John the Baptist had that spirit. John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus' teaching is the baptism of an infilling of the Holy Spirit. Our scripture this week comes from Luke 3:1–6. A prophecy is quoted from Isaiah from the Old Testament that said that the one who comes before Jesus would make the crooked roads straight and the rough places smooth. Is there anything in your life that seems to be rough or crooked? God truly wants to level things out so that we can boldly approach the throne of grace. My prayer for you is that you experience the baptism for forgiveness and the baptism of the infilling. Blessings.

How many of you would say that you are perfect? I can’t see the show of your hands, so I’m going to assume most everybody is hesitant to say that. In Christ, though, our sins are washed away when we are forgiven, and in his Father’s eyes, that is a view of perfection. Do you remember that old song where the lyrics said something like, “He’s still working on me, to make me more like he wants me to be?" Those lyrics sum up the term “sanctification.” Hebrews 10:11–14 tells us that we are being made perfect, those that are sanctified in the Lord. I believe it’s all the process or journey, and it begins when we ask Christ to come into our hearts. Good Wesleyans believe that it begins even before that when God’s prevenient grace goes before us and woos us into the kingdom. So, what do we do about all this? The Word also tells us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift us up. We are to prefer our brother and turn the other cheek. There is no motivation under the sun to do that for the right reason unless one is filled with the agape love of God. In this journey where there are many hills and many hurdles and many times, we stumble and fall and bruise our knees and our toes and hands... The Lord continues to desire to pick us up and lead us in the everlasting way. He has already saved us, and he is getting us ready for the kingdom of God. I love a phrase we used in the United Methodist Church when we were being ordained as pastors. The bishop would ask all the ordinands, “Are you going on to perfection?” Maybe that should be our goal. Blessings this week.

“Culmination of the Ages” In the book of Hebrews 9:24–28, we have the explanation that Jesus has entered into heaven, offering not the blood of an animal as the Old Testament sacrifice but his own blood, which forgives our sins for all time. The high priest in the Old Testament had to enter that earthly sanctuary every year, but Jesus brings the culmination of the ages together by offering this, which forgives the sins of mankind in the past, present, and future. That permits people to go to heaven or to live with our Lord forever and ever. We know there is still a caveat there. You must receive the gift and put on the wedding garment, as Jesus describes in one of his parables. What would you say is your culmination of the ages for your life? What would be a great climax like your wedding day or the birth of your first child, or maybe just an amazing, miraculous moment? At the top of that list should be when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That connects us with his original culmination of the ages. God loves you so much and plans on being your high priest, and the Bible says that in his setting and on his throne, he is busy interceding for you and me until we make our way to the pathway of heaven. Isn’t that an amazing Savior? Blessings this week.

“All Saint’s Day” on the church calendar, November 1 is classified as All Saint’s Day. We, at our church, honor that day with the closest Sunday to that date, usually afterward. History shows that as the early Christian church was moving across Europe, certain pagan festivals were replaced with Christian Holy Days. We all know that October 31 is Halloween, which actually means holy eve. It is the evening before All Saints Day. We, at our church, like to recognize all our church members that have gone on to heaven in the last 12 months. You might ask how we know if they are saints or not. The Scriptures are clear in 1 Peter 2:9 that all of us, if we have given our life to Christ, are very special, holy, separate people. This is not by our good works, but by God‘s marvelous grace, and we are called to share light in a dark world. So… If you are a Christian, you are considered a saint. I know we hear that phrase all the time: "I am no saint." The reality is, though, according to the Scriptures, we are saints in God's eyes. Therefore, we are held to a responsibility to nurture and grow that saving grace that is placed inside of us. We are the Lord’s ambassadors and his disciples, and we should always seek sanctification, or the ongoing infilling and leading of the Holy Spirit. So... how is your Saint Hood going this week? :-) Blessings!

This Sunday on the church calendar is called Reformation Sunday. It is the celebration of the protestant movement from the 16th century when the reformers were protesting the church establishment of the day, which would’ve been the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the great names that come from that are Martin Luther as well as John Calvin, and a gentleman from Switzerland by the name of Zwingli. Our verse of scripture to look at this week is Mark 10:46–52. It is the story of the beggar on the roadside crying out to Jesus and Jesus healing him. It is very clear how he is healed in this story, and it represents faith and faith alone. That truly is what the Reformation expressed so many years ago. The only way to truly experience God and his eternal life is by faith, and faith alone. You may have various background traditions, according to which denomination you have been connected with in your lifetime, but the scriptures seem to be clear that to have eternal life, we must accept Christ by faith. If you do not have faith to do that, then the scriptures would encourage you to ask for faith. Matthew 7:7 tells us that if we ask, we shall receive, and if we seek, we will find, and if we knock, the door will be open unto us. I don’t think God minds what denomination sign is over the front of our church building, but I do believe that he is very interested in our personal relationship with him. How is yours this week? Does it need to be reformed? Blessing.

Have you ever heard that phrase before? Do you know your place? That has been used as a racist statement, but also in many other categories over the years. I remember years ago having the opportunity to sit at a table with some great football stars, including Florida State University‘s coach, Bobby Bowden, and his son was also sitting there. I did not feel like it was my place to sit with that royalty, but you know what? I did :-). The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 2:9 that “we are a chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people that have been set apart and been called out of darkness to proclaim his marvelous light.” That is our place, but what the Lord asks in this passage is, knowing who we are in Him, can we drink of the cup that he had to drink from? The son of man did not come into the world to be served, but to serve. The call of Christ when we receive him as our Lord and Savior is to serve others. We are to help bring them into the kingdom of God and help them be discipled to mature in their Christian faith. There is no other business in the spiritual realm that is more important. In a checklist from 1 to 10: how are you doing :-)? Blessings.

“Eternal Life,” that is our topic for this week as we begin a study in October from the book of Mark. Let’s begin with the question, do you have eternal life? If you have asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and come into your life and believe that he died on the cross for you, the Bible says you are saved. What is interesting in our passage from Mark chapter 10 when Jesus is talking to the young wealthy person, is that Jesus meets him where he is to begin with. He told him that he probably knew the laws of their faith which he summed up the 10 Commandments by telling him we’re not to steal or to commit adultery or to commit murder or to bear false witness, etc., the young man said” I’ve kept all those from my youth.” I love the part where it says then Jesus loved him and said…this is what you need to do. He needed to go sell all he had because it is obvious in this story that it had become his god or his idol, and he was full of his own stuff, so there was no room for the Holy Spirit of God to come to him. Jesus said to go and sell all you have, then… Then… Come and follow me and you will have treasures in heaven. Look at that big word, “Then.” In other words, you cannot be filled with God if you are going to have other gods in your life or idols. That’s part of the concept of repentance. Turning away from our selfishness and toward God‘s selflessness. The rich young person grieves deeply and walks away. It is interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t go after him for he was obviously offended in what Jesus said, but Jesus then looks around seeing his disciples, “he says how hard it is for the Rich to inherit eternal life.” Jesus said it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, and we know today that that was symbolical of one of the gates at the temple and it was very difficult for those that had large animals to get in. Wow, is your life full of other things keeping Jesus and the Holy Spirit from filling you? Something to ponder, blessings.

Don’t you love that verse in the Bible? The disciples were trying to keep the crowds away from Jesus, which also included the little children, and Jesus seems to stop the commotion by telling them to let the little children come to him. What does that say to us? This passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 10. I think first of all it makes it clear that Jesus has a very welcoming personality. He also loves for children to be in his community. In another passage, he tells us that we must accept the grace of God and have faith like a little child, or we will not enter into the kingdom of God. Most of the time, children accept what the adult says. We know that in today’s world and our historic past, children cannot always believe what the adult says, but in the perfect picture of God relating to his children, it just seems to make sense. We trust Jesus and his goodness. God is good. This passage means a lot to me as well, because I see all of us when we are young in our faith as little children of God. We have opportunities to grow through following his Bible. This last week we lifted up the acronym B.I.B.L.E. (basic instructions before leaving earth:-). That’s a pretty cool acronym, is it not? Also, this perspective with Jesus and children gives us the idea of how he views us. How he knows that we are not smart enough or wise enough to always make the right decisions, but we can be taught and grow up in the ways of his grace, mercy, and truth. “Let the little children come to me and hinder them not for such as the kingdom of God.” What does that passage mean to you this week? Blessings.