Greetings,
I have been in awe of God’s sovereignty a lot more lately. He is able to do whatever He wishes. My grandmother, who had been struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s, had about 45 minuets of lucidity a couple of days before she passed away. She was responding to questions, smiling and excited to see Jesus. That was the power of God over her brain to bless our family with great comfort and closure. God is doing amazing things in the world and His sovereignty is incredible. He does small things like what He did for me and my family with my grandmother and he does large things like cause a supernatural star to shine in the sky as a sign to ancient astronomers that the chosen messiah had been born. That kind of stuff leaves skeptics dumbfounded and left trying to explain away miraculous supernatural events as mythical or legend.
Job 37:11-13
He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
He brings the clouds to punish people,
or to water his earth and show his love.
God is involved in all of the crazy things that happen around the world and He has His divine purpose for it all. I don’t always know why He does what He does or allows to happen what He allows to happen. That doesn’t change the fact that I am called to be a minister of the gospel and reconciliation. It amazes me that humanity can come to the conclusion that because God isn't predictable and allows people to suffer, they are going to chose to not believe or chose to live contrary to how God’s word calls us to live. When I choose to live contrary to God, I am worshiping myself. I believe that I know what is best for me and I can do my own thing and everything will be better.
Just because we don’t understand something doesn’t mean that we don’t trust it. A large percentage of our population hasn’t a clue how an elevator works but they trust it enough to get in. I understand that is a poor analogy for trusting God, but it demonstrates the fact that people are willing to trust something simple that they don’t understand but are unwilling to trust a loving and complex God when he does things that we don’t comprehend. The mystery of God should compel us to research and learn, not repel us in arrogance and childish pouting. There is, within the love of God and only through His free gift of salvation, a peace that passes all understanding. The peace is beautiful even in the midst of the deepest tragedy.
May you experience the amazing peace of our sovereign God and reflect His great love as we approach this new year.
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
It is hard to believe that Christmas is here and the end of 2018 is just around the corner. What a wonderful time it is to celebrate with the ones we love. Whether yule tide carols are being sung around the fire or folks are dressed up like Eskimos, my sincere hope is that your hearts are warm with joy and that you know that you are loved this Christmas.
Christmas brings back all the nostalgia of being a kid, finding it hard to sleep on Christmas eve night. I remember having an expectant hope that there would be new toys under the tree and that joy of seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles sharing in a great meal and laughing among the Christmas decor and traditions. The nostalgia remains even when families become distant and traditions are lost and people that we love pass away. It becomes the next generation's responsibility to carry on family traditions and create new ones, the memories remain as new memories are being made. We were created for relationship and ever deepening relationship. Our relationship with God should not be stagnant and our relationships with family and friends should deepen as well as time goes by.
This Christmas may your heart be merry and bright. If you find yourself alone this Christmas, reach out to family and friends. Make a good effort at building relationships and traditions that center around Jesus and remember that you are very loved this Christmas!
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men upon whom God’s favor rests! He has given to each of us, this day in the city of David a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. He will be called Emanuel (God with us) and the burden of our sins will be on his shoulders and he will be the savior of the world.
What a glorious gift, so great that it should give us hope, joy, peace and love this Christmas. May you have a beautiful Christmas this year!
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
The weather outside is frightful! It is wonderful to have a comfortable home and a loving family around when the days are dreary. Christmas time is a time of hope, joy, peace and love, but for some, it is a time of depression and anxiety and loneliness. The Bible doesn’t use the word depression but it uses words like “downcast,” “brokenhearted,” “miserable,” and “troubled”…etc. All throughout the Bible there were men and women who dealt with anxiety and depression. Although there are several examples like Moses, Job, Jonah, Jeremiah, Judas and Elijah, I want to focus for a moment on David.
David dealt with acute desperation. In many of the Psalms, he writes of his anguish, loneliness, his heart-cry over sin, fear of the enemy, guilt... and in 2 Samuel we see the grief in the loss of his sons. We can look to David, “a man after God’s own heart,” and receive hope because even the great warrior king struggled.
“My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” Ps. 38:4
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Ps. 42:11
David did a couple of things that are really helpful in dealing with a mental health crisis.
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He confronted it head on. He didn’t let it fester, he cried out to the Lord
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He asked questions to get to the root of what was happening. He even asked his soul why it was so downcast. I like that. Sometimes we are left with no answer other than, I don’t feel well. It doesn’t hurt to ask the questions and even ask them out loud.
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He wrote to process his thoughts on paper.
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He reminded himself to put his hope where it belongs, in the surety of God.
How can we help those that struggle with depression? I spent sometime praying today with some administrators at Jefferson High School because a young man decided to end his life on campus yesterday. It was devastating and is not something that any of our brave educators should have to experience. However, we all know that there is a great lack of hope among people in our communities today. A person does not need to be a follower of Jesus to see the brokenness in our world.
We often don’t know what to do to help people who are hurting.
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People don’t just need the right words, they need to know that there is hope. Hope, not in a better tomorrow, a brighter future or in new beginnings, but hope in the midst of tragedy. Hope in the center of the storm. That hope is only found in the great news of Jesus’ work of reconciling us to God through salvation, justification and sanctification. It is by His wounds that we are healed and it is by His sacrifice that we can have hope even though the days ahead are dark. So proclaim the Gospel to them.
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Try to laugh. Not in irreverence but for the sake of lightening our spirits.
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Accept the notion that helping may not be a short walk but a life-long journey
Rejoice, my soul even though these tragedies surround me. Lord, grant me the wisdom to help those precious souls around me that need your saving grace.
If you are struggling with depression or thoughts of harming yourself or others, please contact a pastor, friend, or confidant. You’re not alone in this life.
Love ya,
Chris