A Child’s Prayer

By Norma Vera

A year ago I sat in my daughter’s living room and stared at their beautifully decorated Christmas tree. For the first time in my life, I was speechless. Christmas had always been my favorite time of the year. This time I was struggling to smile. Losing two sisters just before the Holidays had been the hardest thing I ever experienced.

 We loved the Lord and prayed together often. However, during those days I did not know how or what to pray. I felt rejected and abandon by God, even a little angry. Where was He when we needed Him? We stood on His Word and lost the battle anyway.

Though, mentally and spiritually I was going through the motions. Emotionally I could easily fall apart. I felt like God was a million miles away – but I was very wrong. He was as close as our own breath. I could not see Him but seven months later I would know without a doubt how close He always was.

My daughter called me a few days before Christmas and said, “Mom I have to tell you something so sweet. Guess what Emily did?” Emily is her now 3-year-old daughter.

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The Taste of Our Lives

By Lane Johnson

“Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!”

1 Corinthians 9; 19-22 The Message Bible

As I write this, Sandy is preparing another batch of “friendship bread”. This particular recipe produces a very tasty cake type treat that is excellent with butter and coffee. I have begun to dislike “friendship bread”, however, not for its taste but because its recipe requires that you end up with four “starter” packs that are supposed to be passed on to your friends. These friends then will, in turn, end up with four starter packs themselves each time they make the bread. This then requires them to find four new unaware friends to which they can then unload the starters on who will soon be looking for other virgin friends who have not previously been initiated into this baking pyramid, multi-level, pass it on nightmare.

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Tickets For Two

By Christine Thomas

“Your Mom and I talked and we want to do something different for Thanksgiving this year.”“ Oh really, like what?” I said gripping the phone tighter. “We want to take you and Jim, and Joe and Amy, to the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day.”

My Dad’s offer was simple and appealing, but at the same time it put me in a familiar place, stuck between two good decisions. I twirled around the logistics of his offer like a Rubik’s cube. We were planning to spend Thanksgiving at my in-laws. If we accepted, my Dad’s offer where would everyone stay? Should I cook a turkey meal?

“Wow Dad, that’s really generous,” I said weakly. “Jim will probably want to go, but let me check and I’ll call you back.” As predicted, my husband wanted to go. He thought his parents would understand why we couldn’t make it. “Let me call my Dad.” I picked up the phone, and then set it back down. “Uh-oh, what about the kids?” If we were comic strip characters, we would have question marks above our heads. Realizing we couldn’t leave the kids home alone, and not knowing who would babysit on Thanksgiving Day, I insisted that Jim go without me. I could tell he wanted to say yes, instead, he made an announcement.

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A Profound Mystery

By Marty Norman

When I was a child my favorite books were mysteries. Nancy Drew was my all time favorite heroine. “Ransom of the Seven Ships” and “The Curse of Blackmoor Manor” were two of my favorites.

Every week rain or shine, my mother took me to the Skillern’s Drugstore parking lot, where the Fort Worth Library Bookmobile hung out for the day. Taking the steps up into the interior of the bus, I browsed to my heart’s content. Always in search of excitement, I combed the shelves for the newest book in the Nancy Drew series. I could hardly wait to see what she would do next. She was the bravest woman I knew.

Today I am involved in a much bigger mystery than Nancy Drew – the mystery of God. But this time a new chapter is being written every day. Just like my search in the Bookmobile, I can hardly wait to see what he will do in his next series.

A walk with God is a journey of faith, and there is no time better than the present to search out that journey, even when we can’t see past the next curve in the road. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (NIV) God’s presence is a mystery. It just has to be taken on faith.

Asking questions is the best strategy to grow faith. My grandson Strother is three years old. For him, everything is a why. “Why do lady bugs have spots on their back? …  Why do we have to go inside for dinner? … Whey does the water drain out of the bathtub and go away?” Everything is a mystery. 

Throughout time the mystery of God has revealed itself in a number of ways, in nature, in miracles, in God’s unexplained presence in circumstances. But the clearest revelation came two thousand years ago, on a cold, dark night in December. Everything was business as usual. Shepherds were out in the fields, guarding their sheep by night. 

Suddenly the mystery, a bright light shone around them. As they interrupted their usual routine, they watched in awe as angels, descending from heaven, proclaimed the good news. “Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 (NIV) Immediately they left the sheep in the fields and went to explore this revelation.

One of the things that most amazes me about the story is that the shepherds left immediately and went to Bethlehem to see this thing that the Lord had told them about.

I’m not so sure I would have been so quick. Skeptical in nature, I would probably have drawn up a list of whys for God to answer before I left my flock and took off for Bethlehem.

But no, to Bethlehem they went where they found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes just as the angel had said. The next part is even more amazing. After they had seen the child, they spread the word concerning all that had been told them. And the scripture says, “And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” Luke 2:18 (NIV)

The shepherds were messengers. Steeped in faith, they didn’t question the mystery of the angels. They just followed instructions and went to see for themselves. Then they told everyone what they had experienced. 

These men encountered a profound mystery. Who can explain why God chose to reveal the birth of his son to shepherds in a field. But choose them he did.

Would it be that more people would question the existence of God, and would search out the mystery of faith like the shepherds? Today there seems to be a resurgence of apologetics, of people asking questions such as “is there a heaven and hell…why do bad things happen to good people…is there evil in the world and what does it look like?” I have heard more sermons on the radio, TV, and church in the last year on these topics than I have heard in all the years combined. The world is searching.   

Perhaps, like the shepherds who were the Nancy Drews of their day, shouldn’t we, too, search out the mystery and be prepared to answer questions regarding this profound mystery.   

As the Christmas season approaches are we not called out of our fields and away from our flocks to witness to the birth of the savior wrapped in swaddling clothes? Are we not shepherds called to go to those in our fields to testify to what we have seen and heard? What better fields than our neighbors, families, and co-workers to tell of our encounters with the Messiah. We have an opportunity to witness by word, mouth, and deed to his divine presence in our lives.

Who knows why God has chosen us. It is a profound mystery. But choose us he has. There are no better fields than our families to explain why, to proclaim the profound mystery of the birth of his son this Christmas season.

You Really DO Have Self-Control!

By Cami Checketts

I often talk myself into making health-related mistakes. It’s easier to convince myself that I don’t have any self-control rather than make my taste buds suffer. For example, I say that I can’t stop myself from eating that bowl of ice cream. I can’t stop myself from baking another batch of cookies and eating snitches of dough. I can’t stop myself at a party because everything looks so amazing. It’s always nice to say I can’t help it or blame someone else. It’s easy to say it’s not my fault–it’s my innate lack of self-control. Or if all else fails, I can blame it on my mother’s sweet-tooth gene.

I am here to tell you that this is a load of garbage!

From this day forward, I am going to look at things in a different way: Because of Jesus, I’ve got more self-control than I know what to do with! He tells me in John 15 that if I abide in him, he’ll produce spiritual fruit in me. And when I look at the list of spiritual fruit found in Galatians 5, I discover that self-control is right there! That means that if I stay close to Jesus and rely on him, he will produce all of the self-control I need.

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