A FRESH START! Happy New Year!

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” 

 John Pierpont Morgan

New Years is the PERFECT time to reflect on where you’ve been and resolve yourself to whatever it takes to bring CHANGE to your situation!

Mark 2: 1-5 Notice here how these men, as well as the afflicted man, were willing to do whatever it takes to get to the feet of Jesus... are we willing to do whatever it takes to experience our FRESH START?

Mark 5:25-34 A Woman is a place of distress. She has a NEED. She is stressed and needs the power of God.   1. She makes a choice to grab!   2. She experiences without doubt.   3. She admits her condition and knows the need to continue following!

To EXPERIENCE your FRESH Start...  A hard reality is that we have to LET GO and LET GOD!

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 We have to realize that HE is the “change agent” though... we have to have the Faith to move toward him, but HE has to be allowed to do the changing in us! It is by HIS Spirit that we see our world begin to change! Zachariah 4:6

Our faithfulness to move in His direction will bring about His touch and move in our direction. John 5:1-15 The story of a paralyzed man who is UNABLE to move toward the pool and felt helpless and hopeless in his condition. However, when Jesus approached him with the question...”do you want to be well?” His answer was YES! And look what a change he underwent!!!!

Do you want a FRESH START? Jesus holds your answers!

Christmas LOVE! Do you know it? Will you GIVE IT?!

Christmas, my child, is love in action.

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.

Dale Evans

“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.”

1 John 4:7-8

Are you WILLING to LOVE? Sometimes we are not. We want to, but we are wounded or inhibited because of our circumstances or feel weighed down and want to concentrate only on ourselves.

LOVE is a CHOICE. Lets look at John 3:16… “because God so loved the world, he sent His only Son! He didn’t have to do that. He CHOSE to love us that much!

The scriptures teach us that we love BECAUSE He first loved us! So… when we understand the depth, the width and the enormity of His love for us… then we MUST CHOOSE to love others with the same kind of Love!

As read in our Advent reading this morning… there are 3 types of Love: Agape, Phileo and Eros… there are actually 6 forms of love in the Greek, but 2 of them speak to the LOVE OF CHRISTMAS… Agape and Phileo. agape – which is a pure, selfless, unconditional love, the highest form of love, the love shown by Jesus, Himself. Phileo, which refers to a brotherly, or friendship-type of love is also a type of love that Jesus expects us to exhibit. 
John 21:15-17

This Christmas… let’s demonstrate the LOVE of the Father that He showed to us and make the effort or “choose” to love others with that same kind of love!

In the next couple of days… HOW CAN YOU Love someone with the LOVE of Jesus?! Think about that!

Here are some PRACTICAL WAYS that you can SHOW LOVE to someone this Christmas...

1. Call, Text or better yet... go see someone who you care about and TELL them that you love them! We assume people already know this... but they LOVE to hear it and feel it!!

2. Bake some cookies or find a little gift that you can drop off or share with someone else

3. We visited Chimes Terrace the other day... and I heard many of the residents say that they will not go with other family or friends and will be sitting home on Christmas Eve and Day! Wouldn't it be cool if you would knock on their door and when they open the door... just simply say you were thinking about them today and you just wanted to say Merry Christmas and to tell them that they were loved and watch and see what happens!

4. Know of someone you could invite to your house to share in the warmth of just being together at Christmas? 

5. Go take coffee to all the cops up at the Police Dept or to the Firefighters who are on duty Christmas Day

6. Buy a poinsettia and then go to someone's house who is kind of a "to themselves type of person" and then put the flower with a card on it that just says I LOVE YOU with the LOVE OF JESUS! ...knock on the door or ring the bell and RUN AWAY so they don't see you... just the flower... when they open the door!!!

7. Buy a toy or a treats of their pet(s)... that's a precious member of their family! Maybe their ONLY family!

See what I mean? We have to CHOOSE (no matter what we do) to LOVE. 

Will you do it?!

The Weary World Rejoices with JOY!

The Wonderful Life is not something that is measured by how “easy” we have it...or by “what we have”… but rather by the way we experience the

presence of God every single day!

John 10:9 – “They (that’s us) will come in and go out and find pasture.”

Experiencing the JOY of HEAVEN happens when we realize that everything we have....is a direct result of what HE has provided!  John 10:10

God SUPPLIES everything we need and MORE!  He Saves! He Forgives! He Restores!  He Heals! He Provides! He Comforts! He Gives Peace! He is our Strength! He is all this and more!

Feeling SAFE allows us to experience the JOY of HEAVEN here on Earth!

John 10:11-12  When we face the TERRORS of this life...there is one who will Lay Down His Life for us!  Psalm 91

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus’ birth... we being oppressed. The Messiah was to be someone who would free them from this tyranny. However, the “freeing” was not something that was outward... but rather something that started on the INSIDE of a person!

Look around you... are there people around you that are in BONDAGE? Is someone you know empty and depressed because of their circumstances? 

Share the JOY of Jesus and a Relationship that will change a life from the inside...out, and then people can truly experience...

IT REALLY IS A WONDERFUL LIFE

WHEN JESUS IS AT THE CENTER OF IT!

Merry CHRISTmas Friends!

The Weary World Rejoices with LOVE

The Weary World Rejoices!

“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa

1 John 4:7-21 In this passage of scripture... we learn that REAL love comes from ONLY ONE PLACE!

Do YOU look for Love in all the WRONG places?!

God’s promise to His Creation was that His Love would be ABUNDANT!

Exodus 34:6-7

Does the Love of God Sound Too Good To Be True? Then MEASURE it!

1.     God’s GIFT of Love to you is measured by its USEFULNESS!

a.     Vs 9 – The Usefulness is this...”that we might have LIFE!”

b.     "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10

2.     God’s gift to you is measured by its COST.

a.     John 3:16 There is no greater cost than self sacrifice! Listen to the parents of children killed this past week share of how their children’s life is touching so many around our country!

3.     God’s present to you is measured by its EFFECTIVENESS.

a.     REAL Love realized creates CHANGE in us that then begins to flow out of us! – Psalm 51

1 John 4: 9-11 If God’s REAL LOVE that was born in a manger, that lived and died and was raised from the dead...has entered YOUR heart... then LIVE OUT that REAL LOVE by loving others!

Discover REAL LOVE that comes from ONLY one place...Jesus!

Embrace it...Walk IN it.... and Give it away to someone else!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!