Get Encouraged

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  • Don’t Forget Christmas

    A father and son enjoyed collecting art. They enjoyed attending art auctions together, and the two had amassed a stunning collection. Paintings by famous artists lined the walls of their living room, and the two spent much time pursuing their hobby.

    One day the son received word he had been drafted, and he was to report to basic training before heading overseas. A few months later, early December to be exact, the father received news his son had been killed.

    Still absorbing the shock, the father decided to spend Christmas day alone, but as he was sitting in his easy chair, there was a knock at the door.

    The man opened the door to find a tall, young man standing there with a package under his arm. “Good morning sir,” the young man said, “may I come in?”

    The father invited the young man into the house, and the young man began to explain, “I knew your son. I’m actually the one he was saving when he was shot. I know you like art as I do, so I wanted to give this to you.”

    He unwrapped the package to reveal a portrait of the father’s son. “It is not the fanciest painting. I did it myself, and I thought you would enjoy having it.”

    The father quickly jumped up to rearrange his collection giving the portrait of his son a prominent place. He placed it above his fireplace directly across from his easy chair. The father could gaze upon his son every time he sat in the chair. The father and soldier spent Christmas day together talking and laughing before parting ways.

    Years later, the father passed away, and he left instructions in his will to have his art collection auctioned on Christmas day. Many collectors from around the country arrived to bid on the collection.

    The crowd was upset when they realized the first painting on the block was the portrait of the father’s son. The auctioneer tried to move the painting for several minutes before a neighbor finally bid $10.

    “I knew the boy, so I’d like to have the painting,” the woman said.

    “Going once. Going twice. Sold,” came the auctioneer’s voice as the crowd cheered wildly.

    “Now we can get on with the good stuff,” they snorted, but they were shocked when the auctioneer slammed his gavel declaring the auction over.

    “How is it over,” the crowd demanded. “We didn’t even have a chance to bid on the good paintings.”

    The auctioneer explained the father’s instructions were to give the whole collection to the person who bought the portrait of his son.

    God’s Christmas Gift

    Romans 8:32 says, “Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Don’t miss the true gift of Christmas.

    People search for peace and hope in many places. Shiny packages of all kinds contain promises of peace and hope, but they are empty or fall short. True peace and hope are found in God’s Christmas gift. “Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you,” the angel told the shepherds. He is Jesus.

    As you hustle and bustle this year, take a moment to find and reflect on the true gift of Christmas. Whoever gets the son, according to God, gets everything else.

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  • Christmas Results from Jesus Understanding

    Yes, Jesus truly understands our situation. Some folks have a difficult time wrapping their minds around Christ’s grace because they feel his life was not relatable to their life. However, Scripture ensures us Jesus can relate to our circumstances, and he does understand the difficulties of this life.

    Understanding Through His Birth

    In the first 17 verses of Matthew’s Gospel, we begin to see how well Jesus can relate to us. His earthly family was anything but perfect. The individuals listed in the genealogy of Jesus are not powerful and perfect. They are ordinary and normal folks just like you and me. They are Jews and Gentiles. They are men and women with diverse backgrounds and stories. They are individuals with struggles the same as people today.

    Look at Jesus’ parents. Mary and Joseph are a young couple engaged to be married. They discover they are facing what society would term an “untimely pregnancy.” Their home may not be ready; they may not be ready to be parents, but they are having a baby. A short time after Jesus’ birth Mary and Joseph are forced to flee to Egypt and hide to save Jesus’ life. This is not an ideal situation. By the very way Jesus enters the world, he says he understands us.

    Understanding Through His Life

    His birth is not the only way Jesus relates to us. Matthew 4 tells us Jesus was tempted in every way. You may be tempted by this or tempted by that. You may struggle with this or struggle with that. Your list will match Jesus’ list, which leads the writer of Hebrews to assert, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. We have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us, then, approach the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

    Understanding Brought Christmas

    Understanding us, Jesus comes to save us. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus saving. He provides sight to those who can’t see. He provides hearing to those who can’t hear. One lady was healed by touching the edge of his garment while in a large crowd. Jesus brought Lazarus out of the tomb. In the same way Jesus understood these individuals and met their needs, he understands us and meets our needs.

    Whatever you may be experiencing today, Jesus understands and has come to help you. Your life will not shock him or cause him to run away. Jesus has come to embrace us with the fullness of his grace and truth. Will you consider allowing Jesus to embrace you where you are today? Will you consider allowing him to help you?

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  • What is God doing?

    Christmas music surrounds us with the message of grace and forgiveness. It can put the Good News on display, and sometimes, we do not even realize it. We’re in isle 4 picking out socks for Uncle Bob while swaying to O Holy Night. Thoughts of Aunt Susie’s ugly Christmas sweater are accompanied by thoughts of the true meaning of Christmas.

    Mary, Did You Know permeates our ears with the truth of Christmas. It sends our thoughts to Jesus’ identity, and how God was working on that first Christmas. Luke tells us we’re not alone. Mary was thinking about this as well.

    Luke 2:19 says, “But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”

    The last few months have been exciting. Mary has been visited by an angel, found out she was expecting a child, had to travel with Joseph for the census, and now, she’s given birth. There’s a lot of hype around her baby. Shepherds visiting and prophetic statements being made. In our day, there would be wall-to-wall coverage on the news networks, and Mary soaks it all in. What was God doing?

    This Christmas season you may be wondering the same thing. All the activity in your life – the good and the bad – is causing you to wonder what God is doing. As you ponder God’s work, you can rest assured he has something great planned. You may not fully see it now, but it will be great because God is the one at work.

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  • Just Trust

    Here a snake, there a snake, everywhere a snake, snake. This doesn’t sound like anywhere I would want to be, but there was a group of people who found themselves in such a place.

    This group of travelers was in the desert and growing a little cranky. One thing leads to another and Israel finds themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes, so they asked Moses to pray.

    “Then the Lord told him, ‘Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it.’ So, Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed,” according to Numbers 21:8-9.

    God’s answer for the people is easy. “Simply look at the snake.” In other words, “trust me.” That’s it. If an Israelite was bitten by a snake, he or she just needed to trust God by looking at the bronze snake. Perhaps they expected a more difficult process. Find a specific plant oil or hold the infected area in the sand for 15 minutes, but God’s answer was simple. The simplicity may have caused some people trouble.

    It did Nicodemus, and Jesus said to him, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. So that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world, he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:14-17). Jesus requested trust from Nicodemus. Follow his leading to eternal life, and you will be saved just like the Israelites who looked at the bronze snake.

    Jesus requests the same trust from us. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says in John 14:1. “You trust in God; trust also in me.” The simplicity of trusting him confuses us at times. We feel there should be something more, but Jesus reminds us following him will lead to eternal life. We forget all the places we see the Lord at work, so our trust may begin to slip a little. The question of is there something more I need to do slides into our thoughts.

    But Jesus assures us, trusting him is the action required. By the way, we trust simple actions to do complex work all the time. We trust pushing an elevator button will raise or lower us to the desired floor without seeing the mechanical movements of the elevator. We turn a door knob to open the door without witnessing the latch being pulled back in the door. We trust Google and Alexa to turn on our lights without seeing the process go through its steps. Jesus asks for our trust. Do we trust him?

     Make a list of the ways the Lord is working in your life for reference if your trust begins to slip a little. Where have you seen the Lord at work? How has God shown himself trustworthy to you in the past?

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  • Maundy Thursday: A Different Kind of Love

    He removed his robe, and wrapped a towel around his waist. One by one, he washed every foot in the room. This was not a job reserved for the teacher but the rookie servant, yet Jesus did it. He did it to show his love and compassion for his disciples.

    He didn’t feel too important or think of himself too highly to meet the obvious need. His love compelled Jesus to meet his disciples’ needs.

    After washing all 24 feet, Jesus sits down and challenges us to have the same kind of love. “And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15).

    This is a different kind of love. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is a love that may break the norm. It is a love that looks at others’ needs with a desire for them to be met.

    Today is Maundy Thursday, and the challenge for Christians is to show this love – a different kind of love. Love that makes us stand out from the world. How are you going to meet that challenge today?

  • Holy Wednesday: Can We Find Hope in the Resurrection?

    Yes, because of its validity, value, and victory.

    Hope can be found in Christ’s resurrection.

    The Validity of the Resurrection

    With courtroom-like precision, Paul builds the case for Christ’s resurrection. The eyewitness accounts are overwhelming.

    1 Corinthians 15:5-8 states, “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time. Most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later, by all the apostles. Last of all, I also saw him.”

    It is easy to dismiss one person’s testimony, and perhaps the 12 disciples could be written off as hallucinating. But it is not as easy to discount 500 people seeing the same event at the same time. Jesus appeared to all these individuals after his resurrection.

    He ate with them. He talked with them. He walked with them. They could see and touch his physical body. He was there. Those who saw Jesus could factually say he was no longer in the tomb.

    The resurrection was not a myth. It was a historical event which brought value and victory.

    The Value of the Resurrection

    1 Corinthians 15 goes on to explain there is much value in the resurrection.

    • Our dying bodies are buried, and a body, which will live forever, is raised up.
    • Our broken bodies will be exchanged for glorious bodies.
    • Our weak bodies will be replaced with strong bodies.
    • Verse 44 says, “They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.”

    In other words, we will shed all the struggle and heartache in this life. Our physical and mental difficulties will no longer plague us. The value of the resurrection is a new body granted through Christ’s victory.

    The Victory of the Resurrection

    “Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But, thank God, he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ,” says 1 Corinthians 15:54-57.

    Death, which is man’s great equalizer, has been beaten by Christ. The day of Christ’s resurrection, he struck a death blow to death and brought victory.

    As we search for hope in this life, we can find it in the validity, value, and victory of Christ’s resurrection.

  • Holy Monday: A Reminder Forgiveness is Free

    “When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves” (Mark 11:15-17).

    It was commonplace in Jesus’ day for the outer courtyard of the Temple to be a marketplace. Merchants had a variety of animals available for purchase. They were turning the need for sacrifice into a business; however, Jesus brings an end to it today.

    The Gospel writers tell us Jesus entered the Temple with a whip in hand. He overturned tables and prevented merchants from moving about. Basically, Jesus cleaned house. And, in doing so, reminds us all forgiveness is free.

    The Bible reminds us forgiveness is free. It is a gift given to us by the Lord. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. “

    As you begin the work week, remember to pause and thank the Lord for his gift of grace.

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  • Palm Sunday: An Announcement Like None Other

    As the donkey carried him into the city, the crowd met him. John 12:13 says, “They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,,“Hosanna! ”,“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”,“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

    Today is the day. 3+ years of ministry led up to this announcement. Jesus is their king; he is the king they’ve been waiting on, but his kingdom is like none other.

    You see, the people of Israel were awaiting a king to come and overthrow Rome. They believed this would give them freedom again, but Jesus had a different strategy. As king, Jesus is coming to not just engage a political foe, but to conquer the real enemy of death.

    Today is a celebration of a kingdom being announced. A kingdom that strikes a death blow to death. Because of King Jesus, you and I have hope:

    • Hope of eternal life.
    • Hope of seeing our loved ones again.
    • Hope of knowing the difficulties and struggles of this life are only temporary. They are achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

    Hold tightly to this hope as you celebrate Palm Sunday.

  • Finding Refreshment and Renewal: How Jesus Quenches Our Thirst as the Rivers of Living Water

    It was October, and time to remember Moses striking the rock in the wilderness. The people celebrated for a week. They slept in tents and each morning they would draw water from the pool and take it to the altar. This was done to commemorate the Lord providing Israel water while they were in the desert.

    Exodus 17 records the Israelites in a waterless place and grumbling against the Lord. The Lord instructed Moses to strike a rock, and verse 6 records water gushing out of the rock as the Elders looked on. The Lord provided for Israel’s need in a big way, so a festival was started to remember the Lord’s provision.

    This week-long festival ended in a dramatic way. The daily water drawing was performed seven times on the seventh day. It was here Jesus revealed where one’s desire for God could be met. John 7:37-38 says, “on the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds. ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink. For the Scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”

    Jesus stands and shouts to grab the people’s attention. He stands and shouts because his news is that pertinent. “Is your soul thirsting for God? Come to me! Are you longing to feel God’s presence? Come to me!” Jesus invites everyone to come to him and satisfy the desire to be with God. He invites everyone to come to him to find the peace and forgiveness for which they are longing. Jesus invites the thirsty, weary traveler to find rest in him. He can grant rivers of living water for our soul.

    Do you allow your soul to drink from those waters? Is Jesus a dot on your calendar or the center of your day?

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  • Thomas’ Question

    Taking in all this news was hard. There was a great deal to process as they had an intimate conversation with their leader. He was preparing the group for what was getting ready to happen. He was going to be handed over to enemies, and he was going to prepare a place for them. When the place was ready, he would come back and get them. Much was said, and Thomas was taking it all in, which leads to his question.

    John 14:5-6 says, 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

    6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

    Perhaps Thomas was asking a question the other disciples wanted to know, but did not have the courage to ask. They would not be able to find the destination unless they had the address.

    Jesus tells the disciples the address is him. The way to get to the place he is describing is him. Jesus is the way. It is in his truth and the life he offers we find our way into Heaven.

    Jesus says no one gets to the Father except through him. No one finds the Lord’s gift of grace except through him. No one finds the Lord’s peace except through him. Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life. Forgiveness, peace, and life are found in Jesus.

    Perhaps Thomas’ question is one you are asking. The address to the destination is Jesus. He is the way.

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