'Happy' New Year

Now that Christmas is past, prayerfully it stays with us a little longer than one day. We now start saying, “Happy New Year”.  I wonder why that phrase? Doesn’t really matter I guess. But did you know that here in North America, (British Colony) they celebrated the New Year on March 1 up until 1752. After that it was moved to January 1.

What makes it a new year and what is this ‘happy’ all about it? In my own personal life, as I have said before, I try to start a new year every morning.  Most of us approach January 1^st, with the idea of putting away all that happened in this past year. Which when you think about it, can mean we start with a clean slate or a new diary or day planner as they all start with January 1.

As a follower of Christ and just going through Advent, we have diligently endeavoured to prepare ourselves for His coming.  That coming happened on Dec. 25^th. Now it is time to hold on to the new or renewed commitment to Christ.  We take eight days to think and ponder how we will live this next year. On January 1^st we begin to live our lives as if that week gave us time to reflect on how Advent changed us and the experience impacted our spiritual journey and now, we move forward into an new and glorious walk with Christ.

Then we ask, why ‘happy’?  Here is what I read about this; Happy is about good fortune, general wellbeing and contentment.   That’s it! We wish all of this and more on everyone around us. For years I didn’t like saying Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. Might have something to do with my ‘happy’ new year every morning and thinking merry meant the party atmosphere I attributed to the Christmas I saw around me when I was young. That all changed when I realized that both of these are meant for good and for building our relationship with God in Christ that will make a major impact on each one of us.  That major impact is what we do as we take the first step into 2018 with Christ’s hand in ours. Hold on tight, it is going to be quite the ‘HAPPY’ journey.

Something to think about

Happy New Year.

Rob

Merry Christmas

I have great news! One week today Christmas will have arrived. It's been a long time since the Pope in 353AD declared Dec 25th the day to celebrate Jesus birth. A lot has happened over all these years. Not only has Christianity grown to be the largest religion in the world but Christmas has become universal. Everyone is celebrating "The Season". It has moved past the celebration by people who know all about Jesus.

Part of the main emphasis of Christs birth rides on the reality that God wanted to show the world that He loved them and desired to bring us back into a meaningful relationship with Him. And so, He sent His Son. Now after more than 2000 years, our world is still looking desperately for someone to love and be loved by. For most people in this world, they have tagged on to the spirit of Christmas. Being loved and to love is the strongest emotions that God placed within us. It needs the personal reality of that desire.

Next Monday after all the presents are opened, and some broken already, it will be time to take a break. It will be a time to take a moment, were in that lull or quiet time, to think about the reason for the season.

We who love Christ have spent four weeks trying desperately to get closer to Jesus, the baby in the feeding trough. I believe that as we stand in the shadow of Jesus, we will know how close we are to Him when our shadow disappears and it is overshadowed by His.

While you are taking some time away from cleaning up the ripped wrapping paper and starting the Christmas meal, decide to go to church and worship Him, the Son of God. Don't just post a nice cute picture and saying on Facebook, go and face Him as He lies in the manger. After all, it's His birthday.

Something To Think about.

To all of you, I wish you a Merry Christmas as we celebrate His birth.

Rob

Gifts? Like Presents?

Just so you know, it’s not about the presents.  Really, it’s true. But then again, it also depends on how much of the kid within you still exists. Mine is still living, breathing and some have told me it will never disappear even though my hair has.

If we focus on the presents we will be sorely disappointed. We can all remember back to a Christmas when we didn’t get what we would have liked. That’s because it had to do with satisfying our wants. Which brings me to the point where we need to say to our children; “If God only supplies our every need, we will do the same as we copy His lead.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love to receive gifts. We all do. There is just something about getting a gift. Here is what I think. So many times I have realized that certain gift and what I actually received was the knowledge that someone loves me. That is the amazing gift that outlasts the physical toy that was broken in a day and put in the bin.

Our granddaughter over the years received lots of stuffed animals. She loves them all. The last time I asked, she could name all of them and could also tell who gave them to her. Get the picture? Well, at Christmas we celebrate the gift that God gave to us. He sent His Son into the world to save the world (that’s us) from their sin. That was a true and real gift. When we all realize that God’s gift can never be outdone, we will remember Jesus as the greatest gift of all and He came to be the Gift We All Needed.

Something to think about.

Rob

Just Look Up

Psalms 19:1 had it right this past weekend and you can still get another look when it happen again the first and last of January.  This is what it says, “The heavens declared the glory of God”. Did you had opportunity to witness the Super Moon? I took notice of it twice these last few days. Sunday morning the moon seemed to be shadowing me as I drove to work. It was big and bright and beautiful. That is, until the fog moved in.  A number of minutes later, the fog cleared and it's beauty shone again in the early morning sky.  God wasn't finished yet. He brought it back to all of us Sunday evening. What an amazing sight, especially with binoculars.  

Many years ago a young child asked me why the moon is there in the sky. Personally I don't know why God put it there but it is just another demonstration of God’s power and beauty. Before we were here, He decided to show anyone and everyone His presence and David noticed. I said to the child that maybe God wanted to give us light to guide our way on dark nights. All of us have dark nights in our life. Those times when life is hard and the dark nights seem so long.

This reminded me of a story about Einstein. Seems his teacher needed a lesson. He asked the teacher if there is such a thing as total darkness. The teacher said yes only to hear from the young Einstein that he was wrong. What he said back then was there is no such things as total darkness, as it is actually the absence of light.

And so it is with us when we get closer to Christmas. We light five candles to represent light in a dark world. Jesus said to His disciples, "I am the light of the world". We are all searching for light in our dark world, something to shine in our lives to make the world a brighter place. That light is Jesus.

That is what I thought as I looked out over the back yard to the super moon and realizing that indeed, Jesus lights our path day by day and sometimes He uses creation to do it.

Something to think about

Rob