Happy New 'Today'

As with most New Year’s traditions in America, most of us will not begin celebrating the coming of the new year until this Thursday evening. In our home we will start the festivities around 6 or 7 p.m. These will include board games, a movie or two, and of course quite a bit of various finger-food items. As the evening draws closer to midnight, we will tune in to watch the ‘ball drop’ in Time Square. When midnight arrives there is screaming, yelling, kissing, and celebration of all kinds…because there is now a ‘new’ year to look forward to.

What will that new year bring? We don’t know…we really don’t have any guarantees. Oh sure, we definitively hope for less stress, better financial security, and good health. From a realist standpoint, however, there is nothing magical in January 1^st that is going to wipe everything clean of 2009. It’s simply just another day.

Isaiah 43:19

For I am about to do something new.
 See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
 I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Here’s the good news. God wants you to know that He is on the brink of doing something ‘new.’ The gears are already in motion. Plans are being made…and you’re in them! There is nothing mystical about the dawn of 2010, but there is something very real and powerful in what God is planning right now!

What is it that you long for to be new in 2010? Are you trusting Jesus for it? This week, may you put less trust in New Year’s Day and more trust in the one who created that day before it is even here. May you also be willing and excited to receive the ‘new’ that God is working on this very moment.

CHRISTmas...the anti-ordinary

Luke 2:11 (from the Message) reads:

"A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master."

For the week of Christmas, I thought I'd share a thought from 'The Applause of Heaven' by Max Lucado. Max writes:

An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an "extra" on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away. But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz.

Here's what I would challenge you this week. Is your day to day, week to week routine so mundane and 'ordinary' that nothing really distinguishes one from the other? Is it difficult to pinpoint the last time that God used you to do something for him? Or for that matter, are you still able to hear his voice when the request is made?

God will use us on a daily basis, even in spite of our seemingly mundane lives. So as we celebrate and recognize the physical birth of Christ among us this week, pray for and expect God to add an 'extra' into the mix of our ordinary. No matter where you may be and who you are with this Christmas, may it be peaceful...reflective...and extra-ordinary!

Outcast -or- Outlove ?

For this week's Brain Gum, I would like to direct you to a pastor's blog whom I follow on Twitter. His name is Perry Noble and he pastors a church in S. Carolina. He writes about an incident that happened at their church this last week.

I wanted to share it with you.

Comments, questions, and open discussion are encouraged on this one...either via Facebook, Twitter or email.

This week, may God richly bless you...and may those around you also be as blessed!

Do you see what I see?

In keeping with the Christmas season, I want to revisit the shepherds and their experience that is recorded in Luke 2. The Bible tells us that they were already nearby and pretty much minding their own business when angel appears to them. He tells them that their Savior is about to be born. If this were not enough for these guys to swallow, then a massive Heavenly party shows up on the scene. Then the shepherds decide to go see for themselves. They quickly spread the word regarding what had been told them and about the baby Jesus.

Luke 2:20 reads…

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

What catches my attention in this story is what happened after they had returned to their fields. They were so thankful that they had actually experienced everything the angel had told them before. These shepherds were blessed beyond the norm. Yes, of coarse because they got to witness the birthplace of Jesus. They also experienced a very timely fulfillment of a message from God.

So many times in our Christian walk we experience some form of assurance from God, yet actually seeing it through to fruition rarely occurs in our timing. It is hard to have patience, trust, and remain encouraged while waiting for what seems like forever to see the hand of God move. The benefits, however, are well worth the wait…as these shepherds would tell you!

This week, may you be able to endure God’s timeline in your life. For then you will ‘glorify and praise’ Him.