Gospel:

The word "Gospel" means good news.
While the word has been politicized and distorted we get our word "Evangelical" from the Greek word for good news.
It is the "Glad Tidings" of Christmas cards and songs. The angel told the shepherds, "Unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, Who is Christ, the Lord." That is indeed good news.Perhaps the single verse in the Bible that best summarizes the Gospel would be John 3:16, "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The great theologian Paul gives the primary facts of the Gospel message--Jesus Christ, God's great Christmas gift, died for our sins, was buried, and rose to life again--all according to Scripture.This good news is only truly good if you receive it. Have you?
It's STTA

A Little Boy--And An Entire Culture--In Need Of Help:

As I write there is an international situation brewing over a little boy living with his mother's family in Brazil. Sean went with his mom to visit family in Brazil. While visiting family in Brazil, Sean's mom decided to split from her husband (his dad), obtained a divorce in Brazilian courts, and remarried. About a year ago she died. Now the question is the same one put to Solomon three Milennia ago.
Who gets to keep the child?
The only differences between this case and millions of others are distance and publicity. Hang out in an airport around holidays and you can see it being played out. A visibly upset parent trying to help clearly frightened children, while at the same time holding back their own emotions. It's not how it should be.Adults are supposed to care for children. We can do better.
1) Let's reverse the trend. Childen need a mom and a dad. Let's emphasize marriage and the preservation thereof.
2) Many of us are a safety net in the lives of these children of broken homes. Let's not let them down.
3) Rather than justify the sorry state to which family life has descended in our culture, let's help the next generation learn a better way.

It's STTA.

Thank You!

Thanks from the Covington Bible Church to all of our friends in the Alleghany Highlands who have shared their words of kindness in regard to the Blizzard of '09. We were all ready to present the Live Nativity.

Bread for the House of Bread, Bethlehem had been prepared. Sets were built, and costumes ready for actors to wear.

Just a short time before starting time our team had to make the call to cancel the event. Since then so many of you have shared words of encouragement. Thank you.

James comments that all of our plans are subject to change, whether we admit it or not. Speaking to a group of business men James says, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

I don't know why, but God chose to allow the snow to fall. It compelled us to cancel our presentation, but it seems to have only heightened your gratitude.

Thank you.
It's STTA.

Just Whose Idea Was This Snow?

(A word of explanation:


We had planned for most of a year to present a 3-day Live Nativity at a park near our church. We were set up and ready to go when the decision had to be made to cancel because of the weather. The following are some of my thoughts:)

Thoughts on the “Blizzard of ‘09” and the Live Nativity that Wasn’t:
Like many of you, I have been working to process the disappointment of having to cancel two of the three nights of our Live Nativity. (As I write the third night is in jeopardy.) We:

• Made costumes,
• Built sets,
• Set up the Bethlehem village,
• Printed and distributed invitations,
• Bought music and put it on CDs (Not to mention buying a bunch of batteries and a new CD player),
• Prepared bread, fruit, and hot-chocolate, with at least a nod to historic accuracy, to be served in the village whose name means, house of bread. (I had also made known that for the duration of the Live Nativity the candy-canes weren’t candy-canes; they were replicas of David’s shepherd staff.)
• Had guides ready to guide, hosts and hostesses ready to offer hospitality, counselors ready to share the good news, pray with people, and be the touch of Christ to those in need.
• Strung wires, set up lights, hauled in generators, heaters, pottery wheels, chickens, and a goat named Suzie.
• Prayed, had good motives, and served with gladness.

I was really looking forward to reprising my role as the Mayor of Bethlehem, harassing, and being harassed by the Roman Soldiers hanging around town.
So be ye Calvinist, Arminian, or Ignorantite, the question hangs out there like the disco-ball that Larry didn’t find—Why? (Our tech-guy had been trying to locate one of the old mirrored globes for a particularly dazzling effect--and no, he doesn't look like John Travolta.)
OK, let me get the short answer out of the way first. It is both an easy and a hard answer—easy, in that it doesn’t really require a great deal of thought, hard in that after I think about it for quite a while I am still stuck with it—I don’t know. I know I’m supposed to be the answer-man for questions related to God, but without the least flippancy, and after considerable thought—some of it when I tramped around the Life Nativity setup in the knee-deep snow, this morning—I come to the same conclusion: I don’t know.

I do, however, know some answers that I can eliminate:

1. In some great cosmic battle, Satan did not win.
   An answer often given, based on poor theology is that the Devil got his way. As is generally the case with bad theology, there is some Biblical support for this way of thinking. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18 Paul speaks of his intentions of coming to visit the saints at Thessalonica, but explained his failure to appear with these words, “Satan hindered us.” Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2, and the passage makes clear that he is pretty well getting his way among the “sons of disobedience.” That is a point that Satan, himself, makes in Job 1, and God does not dispute it. Yet as is clear from the book of Job, and countless other passages, the devil is only able to rage because God chooses, at this time, to let him have his way. At present the “whole word does lie in the power of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19), but his ultimate defeat is sure, Revelation 19 & 20, and God’s people need not fear him now (James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8-9). If Satan had a part in this snow storm it was only because God allowed him to.
   
2. God didn’t forget, take a break, or allow a situation to get out of hand.
   The Bible tells us that from the smallest—the sparrow for instance, Matthew 10:29—to the greatest God controls nature. In Exodus God clearly controlled the elements to bring about the deliverance of the Israelites, In Job 38-41 God confronts Job with His control of nature, and in Romans 8 there is the “all things” promise. God used a storm, a hungry fish, a fast growing plant, a lowly warm and a hot wind to get the Prophet Jonah's attention. Read Psalm 139.

Probably if I applied myself, I could come up with more things that I know aren't, but that will do for now.

I also know that sometimes it is God’s plan for His people to fail. At least when we use a human metric for success and at least for a time. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were largely failures. By the standards used to measure many modern ministries, Jesus was a failure. At the end of His three-year ministry there were but a hundred-and-twenty who remained loyal, and this band to use Paul’s description of another place “were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
It is clear that as the Lord spoke through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways . . . as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) Again I am driven back to my original answer, but now it is now more profound and I give it with more conviction. I don’t know.
I’ll be perfectly honest with you. I don’t like what happened this weekend. I’m struggling with the feeling that one friend of mine badly disappointed some other friends of mine, even though when I think about it, as I am in writing this article, I know that isn’t so.
We prayed that God would allow us to reach out to our community. I’d say that about a thousand invitations to the Live Nativity were distributed. None of those people we invited were able to come, but we were able to let each of them know that we care. As we talk to people in the weeks to come, we are bound to hear—I already have—things like, “What a shame, you folk put all that work into the Live Nativity and weren’t able to do it.” I’d recommend that we honestly acknowledge our disappointment, but then go on to explain that we did it because we love the Lord, and desire to serve Him. From the beginning this has been God’s event, not ours. We don’t know why he chose to snow on it, but we’ll leave that with Him. While I’m on the subject of reaching out: I've already heard stories of how people used the opportunity afforded by an evening off to reach out to neighbors and friends. I suspect that there have been, and will be, other opportunities for outreach because our big event "failed." Let’s be on the lookout.

We are always apt to say, “Why me?” Actually the question ought to be, “Why not me?” In this world of tragedy, a failed Christmas event doesn’t rate very high on the scale of significance. It is obvious, from scripture and observation, that in God’s plan this world, at present, is a place of floods and sickness, and wars, and snowed-out Live Nativities. My late Father-in-law, my pastor in my teen years, used to say about life’s difficulties that they “make us long for heaven.” Indeed.

Lord I long for the day when my worship of you will be unhindered by the fallenness of this world.

We planned and set up this Live Nativity as a recognition of the supreme importance of Jesus Christ’s first coming. The blanket of snow serves to bring about a longing in my heart for Your return, Lord.

“Even so come, Lord Jesus."

Where to Look for Real Solutions:

The periodic scandals involving politicians ought to be the least of our concerns. Though blue dresses, suppressed emails, and unpaid taxes tend to grab the headlines, what ought to really concern us is what has become all too mundane in the seats of power. Granted the scandalous does serve to give us a magnified view of what goes on everyday, but too often the titillating headlines divert our attention from--even make us calloused to--the day by day operation of government, which far too often would be seen as scandalous, if we weren't so used to it.
On a human level, I recommend integrity over over charm, and honesty over image, but looking higher, I am reminded of a promise that came to ancient Judah, at a time of corruption in the seat of power.
". . . a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace. . . . [He will] uphold it with justice and righteousness. . . ." (Isaiah 9:6-7, NASB95)
Ultimately the answer is a child!

With a wish for the best of Christmases, it's Something To Think About, from the Covington Bible Church.

Making Up Our Minds About Christ:

I have been encouraging folk to eliminate as many "I have to"s as possible from their Christmas celebration. Here is something, though, that you really do have to do. You have to decide--specifically, we all have to make up our mind about what we'll do with the Christ of Christmas. To not make a purposeful decision is to accept the default condition. Now, I'm not saying you are a bad person, or hostile to Christianity, or anything like that, but you need to realize that this world is not a Christ-friendly place--not when you look at it from the standards of Jesus Christ. John records, "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." It's a pattern that hasn't changed in last two millennia. If you just go along, that's where you'll end up. So, it is important for each of us to decide.
Over the next three Sundays we'll be looking at some of the characters of Christmas, and examining the decision we must make. This Sunday we visit Mary, as she decides to yield.
I hope you will join us at 8:30 or 10:55.With wishes for the best of Christmases, it's STTA, from the CBC.

Minarets or Steeples?

"Banning the minaret may serve to hide Muslim influence from view, but it does not address the underlying issues at stake." So comments Al Mohler on the recent Swiss law banning the construction of minarets--the most visible symbol of Islam. The towers, traditionally, are the place from which the muezzin, five times each day, calls the faithful to prayer. In the same way that many church bells have been silenced, strict noise pollution laws prevent the call to prayer from being announced publicly in Switzerland. Still the towers are seen as a powerful symbol of Muslim influence, in the land of John Calvin. Even though there is no similar US restriction, the ethos that compelled the Swiss to outlaw building any more minarets is alive and well here and elsewhere. Ours is an age of symbolism, largely devoid of substance. Where there is no vibrant Christian message that changes people's hearts, we are reduced to lobbying legislatures to make sure that steeples outnumber minarets. When that is the case we may have already lost.
It is STTA.

Click here to read Mohler's article:

CRASHING THE PARTY:

Something is amiss about Michaele and Tareq Salahi.
For several days it was reported that this couple crashed a White House event, but they appeared on TV this morning claiming that they were invited, even though several officials in the President's administration say they weren't. I don't know what happened, and it doesn't matter what I think happened.
What I do know is there are a great many people who are hoping to get into heaven on their own terms. The God of the Universe, Who knows all, is the one Who keeps the books, and Jesus Christ is the only way. (John 14:6, Acts 4:12) It is a party that cannot be crashed, but there is an invitation. Accept it on God's terms.

It's STTA

A MARTHA OR A MARY CHRISTMAS:

It wasn't Christmas, the holiday hadn't been invented yet, but Jesus came to the house of some friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. So, I guess we could say, it was Christmas for them.
It won't surprise you ladies to find out that Brother Lazarus didn't figure in the domestic equation at all.
The way these two ladies of the house chose to entertain the Lord gives us a powerful example of how we can have a better Christmas this year. 

"Martha welcomed [Jesus] into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations . . . and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." (Luke 10:38-40)

Whenever I teach from this story, I always find ladies sympathizing with Martha, but let me ask a simple question. "Will you be so busy doing things to supposedly celebrate Christ's coming that you will never get around to enjoying Christ? Will yours be Martha or a Mary Christmas?" Don't let the pressure of the season distract you from the Reason for the Season.

It's STTA.

BLACK FRIDAY, EMPTY HEARTS:

Retailers hope it will put them in the black in the midst of a shakey (to say the least) economy.Clerks in stores regard it as black for other, more obvious, reasons.Shopper--at least the serious variety--look on today in much the same way that Ike surveyed Normandy on D-Day. Black Friday speaks volumes about what is wrong with our current American Christmas celebration:

• We remember Christmases of long ago with softly falling snow. The problem is the chances are less than 1 in 5 that my area will have a white Christmas, so we try to buy a substitute.
• We think back to a time when we received a gift that warmed our heart, and so we try to buy enough to impress kids who are already jaded by way to much.
• Just moniter yourself. How many times do you find yourself saying "I have to . . ." in relation to the Christmas celebration.

Even though Black Friday will be history by the time many of you read this, maybe there is hope. Buy less and invest more this Christmas. It's STTA.

It's Good That Thanksgiving and Christmas are Neighbors:

Thanksgiving:The day families gather to eat turkey, dressing, and pie, watch football, and for many, to plan a major shopping campaign the next day.I always think it is a good thing that Thanksgiving and Christmas come so close together on our calendar. Let me explain.Paul spoke of God's indescribable gift. He was speaking of the gift of God's Son. "God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son." When Paul mentioned that gift, he mentioned it in profound thanksgiving. The celebration of Christ's birth should begin, continue with, and never end in giving thanks for the gift of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.Focus your attention on the gift of Jesus Christ, and you'll have a good Christmas this year.

It's STTA