Poor Baby Jesus

By Susan Dollyhigh –

Baby Jesus, lying in the manger, tumbled around in a few loose strands of hay. Drew, my four-year-old grandson, turned the plastic ornament until the manger sat upright.

“Look, Nana, it’s Baby Jesus,” Drew said. “I made this at church.”

“Baby Jesus,” Drew’s two-year-old sister, Annalise, echoed.

“Oh, Drew, it’s beautiful!” I said.

“Sit down, Nana,” Drew said. “I’ll show you some more things I made.”

I sat down on the blue-carpeted floor beside Annalise. Drew pulled crinkled drawings, popsicle-stick figures, and other treasures from his box, showed them to us, and then piled them on the floor. Annalise held onto the plastic ornament, and each time Drew showed us something new, Annalise held the ornament up and said, “Baby Jesus.” He was clearly her favorite of Drew’s treasures.

When lunch time rolled around, I told Drew that we needed to clean up before going downstairs.

“We’ll help you, Drew,” I said. I handed Drew his papers and stick figures, but when I picked up the plastic ornament with Baby Jesus inside, I rolled it across the floor – and that was not acceptable, even to a two-year-old.

Annalise picked up the ornament, held it close to her little body, glared at me, and said, “Poor Baby Jesus.”

Feeling reprimanded by this two-year-old, I crawled over to Annalise, looked into the ornament, and said; “I’m sorry, Baby Jesus.”

My apology was intended to appease Annalise, but sitting there on my knees, I felt a true pang of sorrow in my heart. In a precious moment, my grandchildren had shared with me their love and awe of Baby Jesus. In my haste to clean up, I completely forgot about Him.

So many times during the Christmas season, I do the same. I set out the manger scene, and get caught up with decorating, shopping, and baking. And I toss poor Baby Jesus to the back of my mind.

This season, I want to hold this baby in my heart, just the way Annalise held Him in her hand. When I decorate my tree, I want to remember Baby Jesus. When I buy a gift for a loved one, I want to remember Baby Jesus. When I bake goodies for my family, I want to remember Baby Jesus. And when the Christmas season is over, and its time to clean up, I don’t want to toss Baby Jesus across the floor. I want to carry Him in my heart into the New Year.

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth
to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:6-7 NIV).

Prayer: Father in Heaven, thank You for reminding me through my grandchildren that this holiday season is all about Baby Jesus. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Tragedy in the Midst of Beauty

By Gillis Killam –

While flying over the Rocky Mountains from Prince George, BC to Vancouver, I was awed again by the beauty of snow-covered mountains. I saw intriguing designs in the drifts of snow carved out by the winds over the mountains that stood majestically like large pyramids perfectly formed in the snow. Few, if any, were the marks of man’s traverse in this area as it is so rugged and vast.

I thought of my Creator God who, with his fingers, designed the world with so much beauty and design that caused me to gaze in wonder.

As I looked down through the clouds rolling by the plane’s windows, at times blinding me to the view below, I was reminded of a tragic accident that took place some years ago near to where I was now flying. A group of three people was on a small Cessna plane flying up the Island from Victoria to minister in a church. They never arrived. The pilot must have been disoriented flying through thick clouds, and mistakenly thought he was still over the Island, when he was actually flying over the Mainland Mountains. He flew directly into a mountain and all perished.

We all ask the question, “Why?” It’s a question we all ask when tragedies of various kinds happen to people we know. We don’t know the answer to the “Why” of this tragedy that took two young people and the pilot, who were so committed to the Lord. However, the good news is that they went home to be with the Lord because each had given their life to Christ and God wanted them home with Him.

A scripture that my wife often refers to in times like these is:

“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:1-2 NIV).

What seems a tragedy to us as believers really is not something out of God’s control. Charles Spurgeon once said, “When the time comes for you to die, you need not be afraid, because death cannot separate you from God’s love.”

Prayer: Thank you Lord, you know best, and our times are in your hands. Amen.

Rebel against the Insanity

By Peter Lundell –

A seismic drift happening for decades in America seems to be crossing a line we may never cross back.

At Thanksgiving we now tend to see, hear, and read less about Thanksgiving than ever before. Instead we endlessly see, hear, and read about Black Friday. Which has now invaded Thursday.

Retailers are tapping sources of money, the reason they exist. Yet last year countless people, better defined as consumers, complained—complained!—that 6 a.m. or even midnight wasn’t early enough to open the stores.

On the surface Thanksgiving doesn’t seem to be about religion or morality, it’s just about being thankful. But deep down it reveals our beliefs and moral values, what’s important to us, to whom we submit our lives. And for decades materialism is the god who’s been winning. It seems this idol has led masses across a threshold.

Hours after the richest nation on earth is supposedly pausing to be thankful, its citizens trounce each other to grab more stuff on sale. Who has time to be thankful? We have sales to find, and we research and map a strategy beforehand to make sure we win. Thereby we find purpose and create meaning by the new possessions we bag and the percentage-off we count.

I am not against battling crowds for bargains on the day after Thanksgiving—or even online on “Cyber Monday.” Go ahead. But when it eclipses thankfulness, we have a problem.

To a huge part of the populace, Thanksgiving has become only a pretext for bargain hunting. I encourage you to rebel against the insanity. Even if you shop on Black Friday, make a point to leave Thursday alone. And be thankful, even now.

“Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes” (Proverbs 27:20 NIV).

“Lord, in the midst of crowds who clamor for more stuff and won’t take time to be thankful for what they have, keep my heart right. I choose to be satisfied with what I have, and thankful for it. When I hunt for bargains, I choose to keep it secondary to honoring You and living right.”

Obedience and Walking in the Spirit

By Rachel Indihar –

We all have habits and/or personality traits that we wish we could change. Some of these are minor and won’t affect our spiritual walk, such as twirling our hair when we’re nervous. However, other habits have a deep impact on our spiritual lives and can lead to us drifting away from the Lord.

For example, all of my life I’ve had trouble waking up in the morning without hitting my snooze button a few times. In college I had the terrible habit of sleeping through a class occasionally if I didn’t feel well. It’s easy to give your body what it wants when you’re half asleep and the “off” button on the alarm is inches away. The problem is that the habit of sleeping in and ignoring my alarm has continued into my adult life. Why? Because it’s a habit I perfected over many years. A dangerous habit.

A few months ago I felt the Lord asking me to get up early to do my devotions, because I don’t have time when I get home from work. He asked me to get up at 6:00 am so that I had around two hours to meditate on His Word and eat breakfast before going to work. This spiritual discipline would help me prepare for the day and keep my focus on Jesus instead of my anxieties or problems.

Well, you can foresee the problem. The alarm would ring at 6:00 am, and I – who never feels good early in the morning – would quickly change the alarm to 7:00 am…and then 7:30 am…and soon I’d be waking up at 7:45 when I had to leave for work by 8:15. And suddenly POOF! My entire devotional time was gone.

At first I didn’t think this was a problem, because I thought I could find time later to study the Bible. However, as time went on, I realized that the morning really was the best time to read without being distracted by my To-Do list. The Lord was telling me to do something that was hard on my body but good for my soul. It was something I needed to do in order to get through the day.

This disobedience has lasted for weeks, with some successes, but many failures. I’ve been frustrated, irritated and depressed as I keep asking myself, “Why can’t I do it? Why can’t I obey the Lord?”

In Romans 8, Paul speaks to fellow believers about walking in the Spirit and denying the flesh. He says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:5-8 ESVUK).

Paul is telling believers back then and today that we cannot obey the Lord when our minds are focused on our flesh (i.e. our own selfish needs, wants, desires, etc.) I can have all the motivation and inspiration to wake up at 6:00 am the night before, but when 6:00 am eventually rolls around and I’m focused on how tired I am or on my headache, I will hit the snooze button. I don’t want to or intend to disobey God, but when I don’t pray for help from the Holy Spirit in the morning, I am going to fail. I am going to disobey God.

If you have a bad habit or character trait that you wish to change, don’t try to get rid of it in your own strength! Pray for wisdom and strength from the Holy Spirit, and He will give it to you. Then you will have success that comes from the Lord, not from your own doing. Later when people say to you, “How did you give up (fill in the blank)? How did you change that deeply ingrained habit?”

You can smile and say, “It wasn’t me. God gave me the strength I needed so that I could succeed. I succeeded in His strength, not my own.”

All glory and praise to our Father when we concur bad habits and change our lives. For we could not do it without Him.

Following the Ways of the Father

By Gillis Killam –

Some years ago the leadership of our denomination met together in a retreat to seek the Lord for the direction of our Fellowship. In one of the sessions we were asked to give our personal testimony: how we came to Christ and how our family had impacted our lives. As we went around the circle of twelve men we listened with full attention because many of us, who came from other parts of Canada, had never heard the story of other members. It was one of the most encouraging and uplifting moments in our time together.

When it came time for the last one to speak we were surprised to hear him say, “I don’t have a Christian heritage in my family!” He told us that he could not look back to a father, mother, or grandparents, for a Christian influence. Other people outside his natural family were now like father and mother to him and they were a blessing. He went on to say that now he has a wife and children and he is building a heritage for his own family with the help of his Heavenly Father.

An interesting scripture tells us something about Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, which says, “The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel” (2 Chronicles 17:3-4 NIV).

Jehoshaphat’s father, King Asa, followed the Lord in the first part of his reign, but turned away from God in his later years and did not obey Him. He did not leave a good memory or a godly heritage that his son could look back on, so Jehoshaphat looked back to his forefather, David, who was a man after God’s own heart, and followed His ways.

Even if we don’t have a godly Christian heritage in our immediate family, we may look back to someone who was an example (John 1:12). If we can’t find a godly influence in our past, but have accepted Christ as our Saviour we can look to our Heavenly Father. When we receive Christ as our Saviour we become “children of God” (1 John 3:1 NIV).

Prayer: Thank you Father for a godly father and mother who showed me the way to You. Amen

« Previous Page — Next Page »