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Jesus

For God So Loved the World…

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That He Made a Promise to Us

Probably the most well known Bible verse ever is John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

Eternal life sounds like a good deal, and all we have to do is believe.

Believing is a little more difficult than it appears at first. True believing requires action. It means you believe what Jesus said. This means believing what the Bible says and living your life accordingly.

It’s no good if you just say you believe.

God’s promise to us is a covenant. The word covenant is commonly used in legal, social (marriage), and religious conversations.

The term “covenant” is of Latin origin (con venire), meaning a coming together. It presupposes two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities. It is used in various in biblical contexts. In political situations, it can be translated treaty; in a social setting, it means a lifelong friendship agreement; or it can refer to a marriage.

A covenant is a binding promise of far-reaching importance in the relations between individuals, groups, and nations. It has social, legal, religious, and other aspects. 

God made a covenant with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but Adam and Eve didn’t keep their part of the covenant.

God made a covenant with Noah, but the people didn’t keep it. God made a covenant with Abraham, and once again…the people didn’t hold up their end of the agreement.

As humans, we struggle to do our part in the covenants that we have made with God. That’s why He sent His Son.

As we come to the end of the Roots: Advent study we look at the last part of Jesus’ family story.

Jesus is the final covenant.

If we don’t follow through on this agreement, we will get no more second chances.

We are living in the “Already, but not yet”. This statement summarizes the past, present, and future of the Bible.

We live now in the light of what God did in the past through Christ, but also looking to the future when Christ will come again.

We live between the already—what Christ has done—looking forward to the not yet—what He is still to do.

Christ became incarnate, lived, and died, and rose again. He ascended, and is now reigning, still the same incarnate Savior. But He has not yet brought about the consummation that will occur when He returns in majesty and glory.

We need to learn from our past, look to the future, and live in the present.

This Christmas season remember how much God loves us and the price Christ paid for this final covenant. Don’t let that payment be wasted.

We All Come from Someone, Some Place, and Some Thing

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These All Contribute to Who We Are

We are continuing through the Roots Advent study this week.

Last week was about the “someone”. We discussed Jesus’ family and the imperfect people that were a part of His family. It showed us that neither us nor our family have to be perfect to be used by God.

This week we look at the “some place”.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. A small, insignificant, out of the way place. But this small, insignificant, out of the way town is probably the most well-known town in the world.

This small, insignificant, out of the way town, in reality, is the biggest, most significant town. It is, after all, the place where Jesus, the Savior of the world, was born.

What’s really amazing is that it is so much more than just where Jesus was born.

For being a small, out of the way place, Bethlehem had a lot going on. Jacob’s wife, Rachel, is buried near Bethlehem. (Genesis 35:16-20)

The book of Ruth is a small book in the Bible, just four chapters, but there’s a big story in this small book.

Ruth was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite, Mahlon. After the death of all the male members of her family (her husband, her father-in-law, and her brother-in-law), she decides to stay with Naomi, her mother-in-law, and move back to Bethlehem. (Ruth 1:1-2)

This is where Ruth wins the love and protection of Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi. Ruth is the great-grandmother of David. She is one of five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus found in the Matthew, (Matthew 1:1-16) alongside Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary.  

Ruth’s seemingly small decision to be loyal to her mother-in-law and move with her back to the small town of Bethlehem had a big impact.

The world’s focus is on big, powerful, and popular. The world looks at the outside, but God looks at the inside.

Three things that Bethlehem show us are…

  • God works through the small – The little town of Bethlehem had a big impact. Jesus, a small baby was born there.
  • God works through the powerless – Bethlehem was powerless in the governmental landscape. Jesus as a baby was powerless. He needed to be taken care of.
  • God works through the hidden – Bethlehem was an out of the mainstream, ordinary place. Jesus was born, hidden away there.

It’s easy to get sucked into the worldly perception of what our lives, businesses, organizations, and churches are supposed to be like, through the bombardment of social media, internet, television, etc. Don’t be sucked into the worldly focus.

God can do amazing things with the small, powerless, and hidden.

Let God do amazing things through the small, powerless, and hidden.

Let God do amazing things through you.

Peter Says He Doesn’t Know Jesus…What Are You Going to Say?

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Going Through the Last Days of Jesus’ Life

Sorry about being a day late getting this post published. I would like to blame it on this being a short holiday week, but that wouldn’t be totally true. The short week may have played a small part, but it’s more to do with simply being busy.

The past several weeks we’ve been going through the Book of Luke. This week we finish up Luke going through chapters 22-24.

In these chapters, Jesus’ journey is coming to an end, and these things take place –  

  • Judas betrays Jesus.
  • Jesus shares the Passover with His disciples.
  • Pilate and Herod look for a way to set Jesus free.
  • The people want the murderer Barabbas set free instead of Jesus.
  • The sun stops shining for hours during the middle of the day.
  • The curtain in the Temple is torn in two.
  • Jesus is killed.
  • Jesus is buried.
  • Jesus returns and appears to His disciples.
  • Jesus opens their minds to understand.

There are a lot of people involved in the chapters.

  • Judas – Satan enters Judas (Luke 22:3), and he goes to the chief priests and the officers of the church to help them arrest Jesus. Satan couldn’t come into Judas’ heart without Judas letting him in. Judas had to allow this. The same is true for Jesus. He won’t come in if we don’t let Him. Just like Judas, this is a choice that is ours to make.
  • Peter – Jeus is telling His disciples that they will be tested. (Luke 22:31-34) Peter tells Jesus, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to jail and even to die with you.” Jesus replied, “Peter, I tell you that before a rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will say three times that you don’t know me.” You know the rest of the story. After Jesus is arrested and Peter is standing in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. (Luke 22:54-65) Just like Peter, this is a choice that is ours to make.
  • Pilate and Herod – Neither of these men thought Jesus was guilty or deserved to be put to death. They weren’t willing to stand up against the people and set Him free. (Luke 23:1-23) Pilate and Herod were persuaded by the culture. Just like Pilate and Harrod, the choice to let culture persuade us is ours to make.
  • Barabbas – Upon the demanding of the people, the guilty Barabbas was released in place of Jesus. He was forgiven for his wrongdoing and set free. Then the innocent Jesus was killed on the cross in his place. (Luke 23:24-25) There are some that believe that after this Barabbas became a follower of Jesus. This is the same thing Jesus does for us. Just like Barabbas, Jesus paid for our wrongdoings and it’s our choice whether to follow Jesus or not.
  • Simon – As Jesus was being led away, some soldiers grabbed Simon of Cyrene and made him carry Jesus’ cross. This was not Simon’s cross. For all we know Simon may not even knew who Jesus was, but yet he carried Jesus’ cross for Him. (Luke 23:26) This is what Jesus will do for us. He will carry our cross.
  • Men on the cross on either side of Jesus – There were two criminals nailed to the crosses on either side of Jesus. One of them was insulting Jesus by saying, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!” But the other criminal told the first one off, “Aren’t you getting the same punishment as this man? We got what was coming to us, but he didn’t do anything wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me.” Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:32-43) Just like the criminal, we just need to ask Jesus and we can be in paradise with Him.
  • Joseph – Joseph was a church leader from Arimathea and member of the council but did not agree with what was decided. He believed in Jesus and was looking forward to God’s kingdom coming. Joseph went to Pilate and asked if he could take Jesus’ body down and bury it. He wrapped Jesus’ body in fine cloth and put it in his tomb that had never been used. (Luke 23:50-53) The fact that no other bodies had been buried there makes the empty tomb a big deal. Joseph believed and acted on that belief. Just like Joseph, we need to believe and act on that belief.
  • The women – On the day after the Sabbath the women prepared spices for Jesus’ burial. When they got there the tomb was empty. Suddenly, two men in shining white clothes stood beside them. The men tell the women that Jesus is risen and is not there. (Luke24:1-12) In that time women were seen as second-class citizens. This is partly why the apostles did not believe them until they went and looked for themselves. Just like the women, sometimes people won’t believe you but we still need to share the truth anyway.
  • Cleopas – Two of Jesus’ followers were walking and talking about what had happened. Jesus joined them and asked what they were talking about. With sadness in his voice, Cleopas answered, “You must be the only person from Jerusalem who doesn’t know what’s happened over the past few days.” “What do you mean?”, asked Jesus. They told Him the whole story and then Jesus asked them, “Why can’t you understand?” They asked Jesus to stay with them and when they sat down to eat Jesus broke some bread and He disappeared. The two men went back to tell the others what they had seen. (Luke 24:13-49) Just like the Cleopas, if we listen and learn, our eyes will be open to Jesus.

We are all these people. We are Barabbas. We are set free even though we don’t deserve it.

This isn’t the end of the story. Just like Peter’s story doesn’t end with his denying Jesus.  Our story is still being written. Remember the tomb is empty.

We’ve come to the end of Luke and now we’re going into Luke volume two…Acts.

The book of Acts picks up where Luke left off, providing us with a front row seat to the birth of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the spreading of the Gospel and the growth of the church.

What Are We Going to Do About Jesus?

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Because it Looks Like He’s in Trouble

Most of us have heard of some of the strange and odd laws that are out there. Like for example, crazy law #14 of the 20 Most Stupid Laws in the U.S.

In New York, “It is illegal for a group of people to wear masks in public”. I wonder how that’s currently working out?

Here are a few of the 50 Dumb Laws from Across the United States. In Alaska, flamingos are not allowed in barber shops. A pickle is not a pickle in Connecticut unless it bounces. Christmas decorations are not allowed up after January 14th in Maine.

Most of these laws made their way onto the books because of some specific situation and/or understandable reason at the time. The problem is that we tend to get caught up in the rules and regulations and lose sight of what the underlying reason was.

Laws have been a problem since the beginning of time.

In Luke 6:6-11 Jesus was teaching on a Sabbath and a man with a crippled hand was there. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were watching Jesus to see what He would do.

Jesus knew they were watching and asked the man to stand up. He asked the question, “On the Sabbath should we do good or evil? Should we save life or destroy it?”

Jesus knew it was better to heal than to hurt.

He asked the man to hold out his hand and it became well.

The teachers and Pharisees were furious and started asking each other,

“What are we going to do about Jesus? He had crossed the church leaders and now…

It looks like Jesus is in trouble.

These church leaders had gotten caught up in the law. They were missing the reasons behind them. What started as a good they had made bad.

The wrong focus by the leaders of the church made Jesus angry.

Too often, we think of Jesus as only soft and weak. He is also strong and powerful. He is, after all God. The Bible is full of examples of God getting angry with us for doing the wrong things.

If you don’t think Jesus gets angry just look at what he did to the people in the temple who were cheating. John 2:14-15 The GREED of the people in the temple and the SUPERIORITY of the church leaders are just a couple of things that make Him angry.

Other things that make Him angry are – HYPOCRASY, HARD HEARTEDNESS, SPIRITUAL PRIDE and LUKEWARM LIVING.

These things should make us angry too.

We need to put our focus on the right things. The things that Jesus focuses on.

It’s okay to get into trouble when we’re doing it the way Jesus does.

Living a Christian Life is Like a Game of Tag with a Twist

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In This Game, It’s Good to Be Tagged

We’re all familiar with the game of tag and most of us played it as kids. 

It involves two or more players chasing each other in an attempt to “tag” them out of play. When a person is tagged, the tagger says, “Tag, you’re it.” The last one tagged is the loser and is “it” for the next round.

The Christian game of tag works a little differently. Instead of tagging people out of play, in the Christian game, we “tag” them in. Every person we tag joins in the effort to tag others, who then do more tagging. 

The people tagged in this game are the winners.

In Luke 9:28-36, Jesus takes Peter, John and James up on the mountain. While up there with Jesus, they were tagged. They went on to tag others, who tagged others…

This experience, among others, made them want to be like Jesus and “tag” people.

Being like Jesus, sounds relatively easy on the surface, but think about the sacrifices He made. He came to earth and lived like a human. He shared in our sufferings. He loved us that much.

Dr. Maxell Maltz tells a remarkable story of a love like this.

A man had been burned and disfigured in a fire while attempting to save his parents from a burning house, but he couldn’t get to them and they perished. 

He mistakenly interpreted his pain as God’s punishment. The man would not let anyone see him — not even his wife.

She went to Dr. Maltz, a plastic surgeon, for help. He told her not to worry. “I can restore his face.”

The wife was unenthused. Her husband had repeatedly refused any help. She knew he would again.

Then why her visit? “I want you to disfigure my face so I can be like him! If I can share his pain, maybe he’ll let me back in his life.”

Dr. Maltz was shocked. He denied her request but was so moved by her love that he went to speak with her husband. Knocking on the man’s bedroom door, he called loudly. “I’m a plastic surgeon, and I can restore your face.” No response. “Please come out.” Again there was no answer.

Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man of his wife’s proposal. “She wants me to disfigure her face, to make her face like yours in the hope that you let her back into your life. That’s how much she loves you.”

There was a brief moment of silence, and then, ever so slowly, the doorknob began to turn.

The way the woman felt for her husband is the way God feels about us. But He did more than make the offer. He took on our face, our disfigurement. He became like us. 

The places He went to reach us show how far He will go to touch us.

“Tag, you’re it.” Now go and tag someone else.

How do You Know When You’ve Reached “Rich” Status?

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That Depends on What Your Definition of Rich is

If we aren’t careful, we can get caught up in chasing the “almighty dollar”. There’s nothing wrong with money as long as it doesn’t become the only thing you’re focused on.

We can also go too far the other way and see money as evil. It’s not. Money is a tool that make ministry possible. It’s much easier to rebuild a home damaged by a storm if there’s money to buy the building materials.

One definition of rich is specific to money, but another is plentiful or abundant. What is it that you want to have in plenty and abundance?

Love and joy are the kind of things that makes us rich.

Here’s an excerpt from a story about being rich from Eddie Ogan:

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering.

We thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on the electric bill.

My sister and I got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could.

For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders.

That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them.

We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that.

The night before Easter we were so excited, we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in a $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way.

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand.

We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.

We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly.

I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed–I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much.

Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.

We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way.

At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?”

We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope and we put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.”

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.”

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again.

I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

You can read Eddie’s full story here.

When money is our focus, it doesn’t matter how much we have. If we don’t have our priorities in the right place…we’re poor. Money is an important tool to be able to build God’s Kingdom…but it shouldn’t be our focus.

Fulfilling our purpose with Jesus is what makes us truly rich.

What’s Really Happening When Jesus Turned the Water into Wine?

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It’s About So Much More Than Just the Wine

Most of us are familiar with the start of Jesus’ ministry in John 2:1-11, when He turned the water into wine. Jesus and His mom were at a wedding where they ran out of wine. Jesus’ mom tells Him that, “They have no more wine.”

Jesus asks her why she’s telling Him this, “It’s not yet time for me to begin my work.” Mary tells the servants, “Do what he tells you.”

She knew who He was and what he could do. She had faith. She believed!

At that point Jesus told the servants to fill six large jars with water…so they did. Then He told them to take some of the water to the man in charge of the feast. The man tasted it and was amazed that the best had been saved for the last.

This was the first of Jesus’ miracles and it caused His followers to believe.

The servants had some amazing faith to take these jars to the host of the feast. They knew the wine was gone. They had just poured water in the jars. They took it anyway. We know how it turned out…best wine ever.

When God speaks to people, He’s asking them to do something bigger, something that will stretch them.

Every day we are faced with situations like the one at the wedding. We’ve miscalculated and ran out of something before we were finished. We have to decide what to do.

We need to start with believing that God can do anything and then ask Him. We need to trust that when He tells us to do something…we can do it.

God is abundance…not scarcity.

Too often we approach empty jars from a scarcity mentality and stop there. If we will have faith and ask, God will fill our jars until they run over.

It’s up to us to believe, ask and act.

How Our Actions Show an Outward Expression of What We Believe Internally

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You’ve Heard It Said That Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Somewhere along the way this saying has begun to be less important than it used to. Too often things are said and then there’s no follow through.

I received a text message just this morning from a lady who shared a friend of hers Facebook post. The post was all about construction contractors and remodelers not calling back when they said they would and misleading customers. I’ve seen this happen way too many times.

This problem isn’t specific to the construction industry…it’s everywhere. Much of the time when we say something, we haven’t really thought through what it is that we’re saying. We have good intentions but haven’t taken into account the fifty other things we’ve told other people we’d do.

In Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, people were looking for the Messiah. They were beginning to think that John was the Messiah. He assured them that this was not the case.

As John is baptizing people, Jesus comes and is baptized. While He was praying the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit came to Him. At the same time God said, “You are my Son, the one I love. I am pleased with You.”

This is the first time the people witnessed the Trinity. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirt. Three different forms of the same God. This was an action speaking louder than words.

Being baptized doesn’t mean we’re perfect…it means we’ve been accepted.

Too often people are afraid of God. They feel that they have to be perfect first. This is completely backward. No one other than God is perfect.

Baptism is an outward expression of our words. It is an action that speaks loudly. This action doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t mean that once baptized we will never make mistakes. We have to constantly be working to do better.

We need help to do the things that we should. Just like when Jesus prayed Heaven opened up and He received the Holy Spirt, we can do the same thing. The Holy Spirit will help us to know the right actions we should take and help us to take them.

We have the power to do the right things with God’s help.

There’s a story of a machinist at Ford Motor Company in Detroit who over a period of years had, “borrowed” various parts and tools from the company which he had not bothered to return. While this practice was not condoned, it was more or less accepted by management and nothing was done about it.

The machinist, however, experience a Christian conversion. He was baptized and became a devout believer. More important, he took his baptism seriously. The very next morning, he arrived at work loaded down with tools and all the parts he had “borrowed” from the company during the years. He explained the situation to his foreman, added that he’d never really meant to steal them and hoped he’d be forgiven.

The foreman was so astonished and impressed by his action, that he cabled Mr. Ford himself, who was visiting a European plant, and explained the entire event in detail. Immediately Ford cabled back: “Dam up the Detroit River, “he said, “and baptize the entire city!”

We can only hope that every Christian takes his or her baptism that seriously.

This is an example of actions speaking loudly!

Think about what you say. Think about what you do. Act accordingly!

The More Important Your Priority, the More You’re Willing to Spend

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Being Clear About What’s Most Important Will Show Up in Your Actions

Today, January 6th, is the start of Epiphany. The commemoration of the three kings visiting Baby Jesus and giving Him their gifts. Most are familiar with the story in Matthew 2:1-12 of these wise men traveling the long-distance, led by a star and their faith.

At the time, Herod was king. He was sly and ruthless. Willing to do whatever it took to stay in power.

In an effort to find Jesus, the wise men were asking around Jerusalem about where they could find the King of the Jews.

When Herod heard about this new King, he was scared that he might lose his position of power.

Herod had a meeting with the wise men and asked them to come back after they found Jesus and let him know where He was so that he could go and worship Him too.

The three kings were faced with a risky choice…which king would they honor?

If they reported to Herod, there will be less risk of him hunting them down and killing them. Or they could worship Jesus and earn a ruthless enemy.

After the three kings found Jesus and gave Him their gifts, God told them in a dream to not tell Herod. So, they went home a different way.

They made the right choice.

The message of Epiphany is that every person must choose which king to honor. The king of worldly power or the King of Peace.

Throughout every day we are faced with one decision after another. Some bigger, some smaller, but ultimately each and every one of those decisions are the same as the three wise men faced.

Which King are we going to honor?

God will do the same for us that He did for the wise men.

He will let us know what we should do if we will just listen.

As we begin the season of Epiphany and start this new year, full of opportunities and possibilities, be prepared to decide which King you’re going to honor and make your decisions accordingly.

Nobody said it would be easy, but ultimately, the investment is worth it.

There’s A Lot More to the Day than Just Opening Presents

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Just Like That, Christmas is Over…Now What?

With every passing year, Christmas seems to come and go faster and faster. It seems like it was just last week that we were celebrating Christmas 2020.

It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the Holidays and lose sight of the “Reason for the season”. With all the excitement building up to Christmas, what’s left after can be depressing. All those decorations need to be taken back down and put away for another year (week).

Don’t let the fun seasonal activities cause us to forget that we’re celebrating the coming of our Heavenly Savior.

In Matthew 1:18-25 Joseph is told to accept Mary as his wife and to name the baby Jesus because He will save people from their sins. This all happened as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isiah. “They will name Him Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us”.

God is with us… Not just for the day. He is with us every day.

We’ve been falling short of God’s plan from the very beginning. Adam and Eve in their desire to be like God, fell for Satan’s pitch and did the one thing God commanded them not to do.

Like Adam and Eve, we still are persuaded by Satan to do things we shouldn’t. We’re fortunate that we were given the gift of Jesus.

God’s gift of Jesus is like any present we get, if we don’t open it and use it, there’s no benefit to getting it.

We’re like Paul when he writes about how he struggles with doing the things he wants to and not doing the things he doesn’t. We’re pretty good at messing things up.

A couple was eating pizza with their son who is in a group home. While they were still eating, the cleaning lady came in. They apologized for the mess and said they would clean it up. The cleaning lady just kept cleaning and said, “This is what I do.”

This is what Jesus does for us. He cleans up our messes.

This doesn’t mean that we should just go be as messy as we can be. If we accept God’s gift, we will do all that we can to keep the messes to a minimum.

As we move past this Christmas and into a new year, remember that Immanuel, God with us is that Gift which we’ve been given.

Use this Present today and every day and enjoy it!