I remember going through a time in my life when I had lost the Christmas spirit. The main reason was Christmas was not the same.  As a young adult, the wonder of Christmas that a child knows so well was long gone. Christmas in many ways felt like just another day. That is until I met my wife, Leigh Ann. We met in April, began dating in June and were engaged in December. That Christmas, Leigh Ann knew that I did not have any Christmas spirit and she flat out told me that if I was a scrooge, we would not be getting married.  That was definitely motivation to find it.

It did not take long for me to find it. Just being around Leigh Ann’s mom helped a lot. Frances Nicholson loved Christmas and her enthusiasm for it was contagious. You could not help but be joyful when you were around her. But where I found the Christmas spirit, was where Frances found hers. It is found in the joy of the Christmas story.  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”  The joy comes from knowing, believing, and treasuring the truth that for unto me, a Savior has been born.

The Grinch had it right. “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps” means a little bit more?”  The joy of Christmas is experienced no matter what circumstance we are in, if we focus on Jesus. I hope that you have the Christmas spirit this year because you know that Jesus is your savior.  

We celebrate Thanksgiving this week as a nation. George Washington was the first to set aside a day of national Thanksgiving in 1789. His proclamation began with these words:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

How can you know that you live a life of thanksgiving. The Psalmist tells us that you sing loud.Psalm 107:22 says, “And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!”  The word tell is to do so publicly and loudly.  For many though we are too embarrassed to sing loudly, but the truly thankful person knows that it is their sacrifice of thanksgiving. A sacrifice is dead. We die to our pride to sing loudly and joyfully to the Lord. So if you want to truly live a life of thanksgiving, sing his praise loud.

One of my dad’s favorite verses of Scripture was Proverbs 3:5-6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  The idea behind a straight path comes from plowing a furrow. If you keep your eye on one set thing in the distance, your furrow will be straight. If you take your eye off of that one thing, your furrow will continue to curve. If we keep, our eyes of Jesus we will have a straight path.

The reason we do not always walk the straight path is evident from this passage of scripture, and it is because we do not follow its prescription. To walk the straight path, we must trust God only when we make our choices in life. I watched the movie, Red One, this week. In the movie Nick says life is made up of choices and every choice we make will determine if we are a good person or a bad one. There is truth to that, but to make the right choices we must trust God’s understanding revealed in His word rather than our own or anyone else’s understanding.

Not only that we must follow God’s understanding in every decision. The Proverb tells us that in all our ways, in every choice we must acknowledge him. Sometimes we think that there are only big decisions to make, but our path is made up of small everyday choices that we must choose to follow His way and not our own. That is why the Proverb tells us to also trust him with all our heart.

If we are honest, we know that we will not walk the line perfectly. We do not trust him completely and we go our own way. Thankfully, God gives us a means to have a course correction. 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Confession is to agree with God that we went our own way. When we do so, he puts us right back on the path again so that we can follow Him.

Acts 16:26, says that Paul and Silas at midnight were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Paul and Silas had been unjustly imprisoned in Philippi because they had cast out a demon from a young slave who was being exploited by her owners for money since she had a spirit of divination. When they lost their source of income, they had Paul and Silas imprisoned for disturbing the peace.  Now most of us, if we were in their predicament would be whining at midnight, not singing praises, but Paul and Silas chose to praise God in the storm.

The reason that they could do that is because they knew that they could know Christ more by sharing in his sufferings and that God will work even their imprisonment into something good if they love Jesus and are called according to His purpose. They understood that we are in the hands of a sovereign God. His providence over our lives is good and compassionate but it does not always mean that we will be free from pain.  God may send us into times of trials and tribulations that on our own may be too difficult to bear, but He is with us, and He strengthens us and comforts us and gives us hope that we will one day have a final deliverance from all pain in glory one day. And so, they sang.

There are still men and women of God who know this well and continue to praise God in the storms of life. One of these is my good friend Randy Dabbs. Randy has suffered with one health problem after another. He has been on the waiting list for a new kidney for eight years now. Yet, in the midst of the storms of life, He still manages to praise God and tell others about the goodness of God. Randy preaches and teaches about faith in Jesus Christ. He is a living example of what true faith in God looks like. He is one of my heroes of the faith, of whom I follow his example as he follows the example of Christ. Like Paul and Silas, and Randy, we must all choose to praise Him in our storms.

Elijah felt all alone. Yes, he prayed and called down fire and defeated the profits of Baal and Asherah. But when Jezebel threatened his life, he ran in fear. Elijah said to God, I am the only one left who follows you. God tells Elijah, that there are still seven thousand people who have not bowed their knee to Baal, who still worship the Lord their God.  This means that the people of God were not spared the judgment that fell on Israel.

Israel had turned their back on the one true God and began worshipping Baal, the god of abundance, and Asherah, the god of pleasure, especially sexual pleasure. God did what he said he would do; he would bring judgment on the people (Deuteronomy 28) if they disobeyed His word. This time the judgment was a severe drought. Which means that 7000 people who had not disobeyed God were not spared from the drought. God provided for Elijah during the drought, and I am sure that he provided for the other 7000, but they had to endure, trusting only in the provision of the Lord.

The United States today is not the people of God, nor has it ever been, but like any nation that turns its back on Him, the wage of their sin is death and destruction. God does this not merely to punish but in hopes that people will turn to Him. There is no doubt that America worships the gods of abundance and pleasure, although we may not call them Baal and Asherah. American has leaders like Ahab and Jezebel who lead us away from Him.  So, there is no doubt that America does not deserve God’s blessings but his judgment. No nation has lasted forever, they all come to an end because the wage of sin is death. If and when God brings judgment on a nation, His people are not always spared, but He will provide for them.

If you are a part of the 7000, God is calling you to pray for our nation. Pray that He will bring the rain again, that the nation will be spared. We need to pray for a great revival and spiritual awakening across the land. We need to pray that we will be able to trust Him uncompromisingly no matter what the future may hold.

One of the reasons that we have a hard time trusting God is that our view is limited. We can see the past and the present. We do not know the future, but when we think about the future, about the furthest we think about is our retirement. Most of the time we just are concerned about what is happening now.  What is happening now is not always pleasant, in fact sometimes it can be painful. For some, the now involves a diagnosis, a death, a debt, or a division in the family. Most of the time, the biggest question we have is why and the book of Job tells us that the why is something that is beyond our limited understanding.

Too often we forget that God is not limited by the now.  He knows the end from the beginning. A day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day for God. When God is at work in our lives, He not only has the immediate in mind but the long view as well. I asked my congregation today, what if the purpose for your struggle today is that one person saw how you continued to trust God in the midst of your storm. It impacted their life in such a way that they came to trust Christ and their grandchild became an evangelist who led thousands to Christ.  Would it be worth it?

You probably have never heard of Edward Kimble. He was a shoe salesman who one day shared the Gospel with his coworker, Dwight. Dwight was Dwight L. Moody who became an evangelist who led thousands to Christ. Moody’s preaching inspired Frederick Meyer to begin preaching crusades. At one of His meetings J. Wilber Chapman trusted Christ and became a preacher.

Moody’s preaching inspired a man named Frederick Meyer to undertake his own nationwide preaching ministry. Chapman enlisted the help of a baseball player named Billy Sunday to help him with his ministry. Billy Sunday learned how to preach from him and eventually took over his ministry, leading thousands to the Lord. Inspired by a crusade in Charlotte by Billy Sunday, some men became concerned for their city. They invited and evangelist named Mordecai Ham to preach in a series of evangelistic meetings in Charlotte.  At one of those services a teenager named Billy Graham heard the gospel and gave his life to Christ.

God always has the long view in mind. You will never know until you are in glory, the purposes of God. The only thing you can do is trust that He has promised that all things will work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

When we sing the hymns and spiritual songs of the church, we profess what we believe, who we love, and our commitment to the Lord. Songs like Holy, Holy, Holy, teach us who God is. Songs like “Oh how I love Jesus”, simply express our love for Him, and “I Surrender All” help us to declare our commitment to the Lord 

When I was in South Korea, the church sang a song that expressed a commitment that I rarely ever hear the church in America sing. A rough translation of the first stanza of the song is: 

We have one wish until the day the Lord comes again.

The love of the cross of the Lord engraved in our hearts

Make me love my church

Our hearts toward the Lord’s church

Sacrifice and renunciation, poverty and suffering

 Not even death Can stop us

Our church is the hope of this land. 

As we were singing, I couldn’t help, but to wonder could we in the church in America truly sing that song and mean it. My desire is to sacrifice, to renounce everything, embrace, poverty, and suffering, because I love my church and believe that the church is the hope of our nation. If we truly believe that the church is God‘s instrument to bring hope to our world then we would be willing to give our everything to see the church thrive in our land. We are going to see revival and spiritual awakening in our nation, we as the body of Christ must give our all. What are you willing to give? 

I can’t remember who said it, but he said, I was not a class clown, I was the class comedian.  The class clown did the dumb stuff and got in trouble, the class comedian was the one who stood back and encouraged him. Some people are born troublemakers. In 1 Kings 17:17 Ahab saw to Elijah and said, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”  He called Elijah this because he had told Ahab that it was not going to rain.  Elijah told Ahab that the truth was that Ahab was the troublemaker. It was Ahab who led the people to sin that brought judgment on the land.

When you live in a world that mocks biblical truth and righteousness, you will be called a troublemaker if you stand for them. You will be out of step with society and if you call people to repentance, you will be seen as the cause of trouble. The temptation will always be to go along to get along. But as Christians committed to Biblical truth, we must not only speak it but live by it.

Speaking truth is not being abrasive or judgmental. Speaking truth simply says that somethings are right, and somethings are wrong.  Somethings are good and somethings are bad.  Speaking truth is not calling people sinners and condemning them to Hell, speaking truth is saying that there is such a thing as sin, and we have all broken God’s law. Speaking truth is telling people that yes, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

So do not be afraid to be called a troublemaker.  Especially if in fact, the trouble is coming from the other side. A troublemaker can be the one who helps make things right.

I am writing this article today from the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, by the time you read it I will be South Korea. I am joining thirty-five pastors who have been invited to a prayer conference by Pastor Nam Soo Choi.  He started his church in prayer, and he continues his church in prayer, spending about 7 hours in prayer a day. Dr. Choi is not only a pastor, he also leads a world prayer ministry.  We are going to learn how to pray.

You may be wondering why pastors are traveling to the other side of the world to learn how to pray. Shouldn’t pastors already know how to pray. Yes, we should, but I have discovered that the longer I have prayed the less I really know about it. But I also find that I am in good company. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them something, they did not ask Him to teach them how to preach or do miracles, but to teach them how to pray.

We talk about prayer warriors in the Bible, men such as Elijah and Moses.  We talk about great prayer warriors in history such as George Mueller and Bertha Smith.  But the greatest prayer warrior in history was the Lord Jesus Christ. When I learn to pray like him, then I will stop learning.  I hope that you will never start stop learning how to pray.

In 2022, the American Bible Society conducted a poll and found that only 39% of Americans have read the Bible.  About 23% of those have only read one or two sentences. It used to be that if there was a scripture passage that people knew, it was John 3:16.  Now the only passage that people come close to quoting is “don’t judge.”  Matthew 7:1 says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Unfortunately, many have taken that to mean that we cannot make a critical statement about anything. Critical here does not mean necessarily mean expressing adverse comments or simply disapproving of something.  Being critical means that you make an analysis of something as to its merits or faults, its goodness or badness. To say something is not good or not the best way to live is not being judgmental.

Jesus never wants us to turn away blindly from something that God says is sinful and refuse to point out error. If we did this, no one could be saved. In order to repent of sin, we have to first believe that what I am doing or how I am living is sinful. What Jesus wants from us is not to have a harsh, unkind, judgmental spirit that condemns the sins in others without condemning the sin in our own lives. As Christians, the biggest sinner we know is the one we see in the mirror every day. We are to speak the truth in love and help people understand that God can forgive their sin as much as continues to forgive my sin every day. Remember, every time I point my finger at someone else, I have three fingers pointing back at me.