Making Room

It is officially the Christmas season!  Lights are up in the neighbourhood. The Toronto Christmas Market is in full swing.  And have I mentioned the Hallmark Christmas movies? No other signs needed.

On Sunday we began a series called Packing Light.  Check it out on the website.

We are talking about getting rid of the things that weigh us down and distract us from what Christmas is really about.  Essentially, we are encouraged to clean house (figuratively and literally) to make room for Jesus.

It’s so easy at this time of year to lose focus on what is important. We tend to think more about what we need to be happy, rather than the multitude ways we have been blessed. So often we come to Christmas from a place of lack. We ask our kids what they want for Christmas and we make wish lists of our own. We worry about having enough money to get everyone the gifts we’ve imagined they so desperately want.

We do all of this in celebration of the birth of Jesus, who had nearly nothing—not even a proper place to be born. Yet we proclaim this child to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Clearly there is more to Christmas than the gifts we exchange. It is the gift we receive in Christ.

The baby with “nothing” is the hope for the world.

So, here are some questions:

• What do you want for Christmas? 

• Where do you sense lack? 

• How will you refocus your attention on the hope found in Jesus Christ?

• How will you make room for hope this Christmas?

Dumb things Christians say!

It was wonderful having Mike Gordon from Youth for Christ with us this past Sunday. His story about his time in hospital provoked some serious conversations.

Mike shared with us some dumb things that Christians say.  Honestly, in my lifetime I’ve heard it all!  And with great regret I have surely said them too.

 I’ve heard people say to me thing like:

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.” 

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Love the sinner, hate the sin.” 

 Oh, and so many more.

 So often these things are said with good, even loving intentions but the damage to the receiver can be catastrophic.  

 I remember a young mom who just lost her child being told that, “God needed another angel in heaven.”  Why would someone say that?  Why would someone say that our all-powerful Heavenly Father took their child away from them, on purpose, for His needs, not caring what it did to them?  

 Imagine what that would do to the grieving family’s understanding of God.  And if they didn’t believe in God (or even a version of God sufficiently similar to yours), it would be the equivalent of saying “Santa needed another elf in his workshop.” Who would say that?  Nobody.

 The reality is that at some time or another, in the middle of our pain or struggle, some well meaning Christian will say something dumb. It may even be me, and I apologize in advance! But here is what I hope we will all remember:

 God is God. God is Truth.

 Human’s, even Christians (or rather, particularly Christians), make mistakes and say some pretty dumb things.  My prayer for you and for me is that we would remember the character of God, the Grace of God, and the love of God before internalizing clichés said by people who want to help.

As we get to know our God better it matters not what others say.  The truth is found in who God is. And God LOVES you!

A servant to whom?

 Over the past four weeks we have been talking about the Old Testament prophet Elisha and his sick (aka “awesome”) faith.

Elisha is known to have preformed a great number of miracles, second only to Jesus. One miracle that I mentioned but didn’t expand on in this series was that of Naaman.  

Naaman was a respected commander of the army and he had leprosy. Read the story here.

Though Naaman gets the spotlight in the story of his miraculous healing, none of it would have been possible without a young unnamed girl.  This girl, as part of the spoils of war, was taken from her homeland but she remained faithful to her God. We know very little about her except that she now served Naaman’s wife.

This unnamed servant girl knew that a prophet of God was in Israel. In verse 3, her simple sentence was actually a strong testimony of faith.

She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

She knew that where God was, there was always hope. She dared to think that God cared for all people and she had the audacity to inform her mistress, who in turn told Naaman. That simple, bold, courageous sentence would change their lives.

I find this story fascinating. Not only does God, through Elisha heal Naaman of his leprosy, but the entire story of Naaman’s cure is possible because of servants. 

-       A servant tells him about Elisha, 

-       A servant tells him what to do for a cure, and

-       Naaman’s servants convince him to follow through with the instructions. 

Almost everyone in this story is a servant to someone:

-       Naaman to his king, 

-       A young girl to her mistress, 

-       Elisha to the Lord God. 

And don’t miss this, in the end, Naaman becomes a servant to the true God.

You and I are also are called to serve.  We are called to serve the one true God, our Lord. And like the young servant girl, wherever we are we can boldly testify to what we know—that our God is a God of love and grace.