Month: December 2016

GET TOGETHER- The Perfect Christmas
 

Mt 2:1 ¶ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'” Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

 

 

  There have been stories written, movies, and plays produced for many years that feature characters looking for the perfect Christmas. I won’t take the time to name them all, but J.J. and I watched one the other night and it seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong with the main character in the movie’s search for a perfect Christmas. Before I go any further we are praying for you and for ourselves that we will have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and most important celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Let’s look at that first Christmas. We know that perfection came down from Heaven to earth that night in Bethlehem when the Incarnate God came to earth, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And yet we can look and see that although the greatest event that had taken place in human history was taking place in Bethlehem it was not the perfect Christmas. Let us look at a few things that were going on that certainly would attempt to hinder this from being what we would call a perfect Christmas.

 

We see a wicked political leader concerned and worried that another King is coming to take His place. When we were in our sinful estate we liked being our own King and Queens. There are political leaders today that are power hungry and that deny that there is an eternal King that sits on the throne of Heaven. We need to pray for them to receive the mercy that we have received. We see some religious leaders that later on down the line some of which would align themselves with wicked political leaders to conspire to crucify the child that was born in Bethlehem. 

We see a family rather than going home from the hospital with a pretty blue ribbon exclaiming “it’s a boy” running to another country to survive. And then we have a Mother that after giving birth to the Christ child has a lot of heavy things to ponder on the trip down to Egypt : Lu 2:19 “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Certainly, she would think back on this first Christmas at another very significant day in salvation history: Joh 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. She would see her son the Babe that was born in a manger nailed to an ugly wooden Roman cross that was reserved for the lowest of the low.

And because of what took place on that day we will one day celebrate the perfect Christmas. The Book of Revelation gives us some insight to the perfect Christmas Re 15:3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!  

Again, as I said earlier we are expecting to have an enjoyable Christmas. We will enjoy our family being together. We will pray for those who won’t have their family members with them. We will worship the Lord with a Christmas Eve Celebration of Holy Communion. We will remember those Christians that are being persecuted in other parts of the world. We will celebrate the Lord’s birth here this Sunday on Christmas morning. And we will be praying about the plans that He has for us to advance the Kingdom in 2017.

But most of all we are looking forward to that perfect Christmas when we will reunite with our loved ones and be with the Lord forever and ever! I think that I will finish this and you tube up Handel’s Hallelujah chorus. You might want to do that yourself. Get practiced up. You don’t have to wait until you get there. I am so looking forward to singing that song one day in the presence of Jesus as we celebrate The Perfect Christmas with all of the saints that have gone before us! Would you shout Hallelujah to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

 

Let Us Pray

Lord Jesus we thank You for every Christmas that we have experienced here on this earth. We thank you for the ones when we have had a love one go be with You during this time of the year. We thank You for the challenges that we have faced during various Christmas Seasons . We thank you that You always come through. We thank You most of all that You walk with us daily and that we will live and reign with You forever and ever! Hallelujah!

Amen

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!

 

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and people that love us. God bless you all. We love you all with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

Your Friends and kinfolks

Preston and J.J.

GET TOGETHER- YES JESUS LOVES YOU
Joh 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Joh 17:26 “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
            I have just got back from a Celebration of Life for Dorothy Ellison. She was a lifelong friend of our family. She was a teacher at my Alma Mater Dora High School for over thirty years. Her son James was my first friend in the First Grade and in Sunday School. She had been honored as one of the top ten teachers in the United States by a national magazine at one time during her illustrious career. Most of all she was greatly admired and loved by all of her students.

            At her service today I saw people that she had influenced that had become very successful in life. Some were pharmacist’s, attorney’s, school teachers, and many that were serving Jesus Christ in some way in a local congregation somewhere.

            In high school I was not a very serious student. I took Physics under Mrs. Ellison and was glad that I was able to get through her class with a C average. Today on the way down to the Sumiton – Dora area from Hamilton I was thinking about her being my teacher in high school and also about her being my Sunday School Teacher when I was a little boy. Through no fault of hers I honestly don’t remember a whole lot of what I learned in Physics. Perhaps it is in my mind somewhere and I just don’t realize when some of what I learned there is being applied in my life. On the other hand I do remember her being one of the teachers that taught me these word to a song when I was a little boy “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

            Here at Christ Community Fellowship we have been praying for the prodigals to come home for Christmas. I remember what it was like being a prodigal away from Christ and the church at Christmas time. I remember lonely nights on Christmas Eve. I remember riding home late at night and on the secular radio stations the disc jockey would stop for at least one song and play Silent Night. I glad that Jesus loves us enough to send us messages like that when we are out in the far country. I am glad that I had also learned that song from Mrs. Ellison and the women at Sumiton United Methodist Church when I was a child. The Holy Spirit would use that to call me back home out of the far country.

            I remember when J.J. and I started going back to church. Mrs. Ellison asked me one day if I would be willing to take up the offering that following Sunday. At that time I was still bartending and I told her that I just didn’t feel worthy to do that. She encouraged me to go ahead and to do it. I think that I did. For me that was probably a small step on my journey to committing my life to Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us in Zechariah 4:10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” Perhaps you are reading this and there is someone that the Father wants you to encourage in a graceful way as Mrs. Ellison did me. Or you may be out there and you know that something is really missing in your life. Do you know what it is? It is the love of Jesus Christ. In a couple of weeks the trees will be taken down. The presents will be unwrapped ,but you can rejoice in having an eternal relationship with the Son of God. If you have one already I encourage you to look back and give thanks for the people that God has used in your life in so many ways to help you to experience a born again relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus loves us this we know, because the Bible tells us so.
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus we thank you today for saints that You have used to help us to come to a saving relationship with You. We are thankful for everyway that You have used them. Today lord we pray for not just for the prodigals to come home, but for us to be instruments of God’s grace in helping them to get home.

In Jesus Name

Amen
Merry Christmas 365 to you!

Your Friend/Kinfolk

Preston

GET TOGETHER -MAKE IT A REAL MERRY CHRISTMAS
           

Lu 15:22-24 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

 

 

Last week I shared about how the far country can be a desolate place. People go there looking to find something to satisfy something in themselves that only God can satisfy. This past week I was telling some college students how much more fun I was having now that I was serving the Lord than when I was in the far country really looking for fun.

Don’t get me wrong. It is not fun when you must tell someone that someone that they love and care about has left this walk of life. It is not fun when you hear that young people or any group of people have gone into drug addiction. It is not always fun doing some of the other things that we as Christians do. But on the other hand, there is joy and contentment in walking with Jesus Christ no matter what the situation may be. And yes, by walking with Jesus Christ we will have some fun times. There will be some times of real celebration. I am also reminded of this passage as I write this Ps 84:10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (NKJV)

We can see in the story of the prodigal son one of those fun times. As it has been said before God can throw a party like no one else can. The scripture tells us that when this prodigal came home they began to be merry.

The Greek term for merry is euphraino, yoo-frah’-ee-no. That term means to become happy or glad. God isn’t against people being happy, or glad. God isn’t against celebrating. This son had been in the far country. Who knows how many times that Father had cried out for that boy to come home? Who knows how many times that he went down that road looking for him to be coming back? 

We do know what the Father did the day the boy came back home. He kicked the celebration off by giving the Son something very special: Lu 15:22-24 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet ‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. These robes were only used at festive times. It was time for a feast. Also giving a ring in that culture was a means of honor. It was time to honor this young prodigal for his being willing to repent of his sin and to come back to the Father’s House.

            Some of you reading this have some prodigals on your heart that you have been crying out for some time for them to come home. Some of us may have some that God is putting on our hearts right now to begin to cry out for them to come home. You may be reading this and be one of the prodigals that Daddy is saying come home let’s have a real Merry Christmas. Some of you may have been at the Party at one time and have drifted away from that place of where you were really enjoying being in the House of God and fellowshipping with other Christians. Daddy is saying come home! Let’s make it a real Merry Christmas! The Praise Team is ready to celebrate it! The People who love you are ready to celebrate it. The angels in heaven are ready to celebrate it: Lu 15:10 “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (NKJV)The calf has been fattened up and is ready to be put on the fire! It is time to experience a real Merry Merry Christmas!

 

 

Let Us Pray

 

Lord Jesus we ask You to continually by the Holy Spirit to draw these prodigals back home. Lord we pray that they even be home for Christmas in order that they and those that love them may have a Merry Christmas. An eternal Christmas that will have no ending. Lord we thank you that when we were prodigals that you didn’t let us perish while we were in the far country. Holy Spirit don’t let us go back no matter what the devil may offer us.

In Jesus Name

Amen

           

Expecting some prodigals to come home! Also tonight at Christ Community Fellowship we will be praying for the Prodigals to come home.

 

Your Friend/Kinfolk

Preston