12-26-2014

Good Morning All,

          Luke 2:20; “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

      So how do you spend the day after Christmas?  Now, granted some of you will get together with family today or this weekend or even a few days later, but at some point in time all the celebrating, the gift giving, the food ends; what do you do then?  For some, it is a sense of relief that the hustle and bustle is over and a sigh of tiredness is exhaled.  For some, it comes with a sense of loss, perhaps large or small.  Small, if loved we don’t see often enough are leaving once more.  It can be large if we have said goodbye to someone we love.  For some, it comes with s sense of dread as the bills soon will be coming due.

     For the shepherds, it was back to work.  It was back to work but with a different mindset, a different view of the world, with a difference in their heart.  As the shepherds returned, as in went about their regular daily work; they did so with a difference.  They still worked but they now lived their life with hope.  They now had a different purpose and a different outlook.  Rather than live in fear or pain or sorrow, they lived with the true hope of their salvation.  The source of this hope, the baby Jesus, was revealed to them; they saw him ad they believed what the angels told them.

    So, as they went about their life; they took every opportunity to tell others what they had heard and seen.  This is what we are to do as well.  We are to live our life.  We are to continue in the life that we are in; we are to be parents, children, spouses, teachers, business people, sales people, farmers, retired people, whatever we are doing in life; God wants you to continue in this walk.  Yet we walk it differently.  We no longer walk it focusing on our own selfish goals or our own selfish needs; we walk in light knowing that there is far more than just “me” in this world. 

    As we go about our life, we are to tell those we meet about what we have been told.  We can tell them of the peace that God gives to us.  We can tell of how God’s mercy gives us hope and how we know that the world and the devil do not control us.  God, in his eternal love, has promised to guard and protect you from the devil’s assaults.  We are always in God’s loving and protective arms.  So we need to tell others about God’s love.  Just as the shepherds did, we are to spread the Gospel of Jesus.  We are to tell of the healing and the hope that God has given to us and to all who believe through the life of Jesus.

Father of mercy, you give us new life with the certainty of hope everlasting.  Move us by your Spirit to tell others of your love.  Use our voices, our hands and our lives to bring your eternal light into this dark and lost world.  Help us to shine for you.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen. 

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret