If you are a true Christian, Christ declares you to be a valuable and needed part of your local church. You are an unrepeatable miracle! You are a specialized part. No one else can do what you can do as well as you can do it. You cannot be replaced with a substitute part, any more than a surgeon can replace a defective stomach with a pair of lungs. Christ wants you to do in His Body exactly what He’s made you to do because you, as an individual, really do count.

[Unfortunately, many Christians seem to have lost their sense of identity as to what role they play in the Body of Christ. Like someone suffering from amnesia, they are asking themselves, “Who am I as a Christian, and why am I here? Just how do I fit into the family of God? In the midst of all the people and programs, do I, as an individual, really count?” Some people have the funny idea that when they place their tithes in the offering plate, that they are paying the staff to do the work of the ministry for them. No, that’s not so. Our job as staff is to equip you to do your work in the ministry well.]

One of the reasons why God has you here in this local church is that He wants you to grow to become more mature through the process of serving others. God is using this local church to grow baby Christians into mature Christians. That’s why we’re here. We are growing baby Christians into mature Christians.

Babies are cute, babies are wonderful, babies are beautiful, but nobody wants to remain a baby forever. It wouldn’t be healthy. That’s why God’s plan for a healthy church is to grow baby Christians into mature Christians. God stimulates us to grow through the process of giving each one of us a ministry, a ministry that forces us to learn and stretch and grow up. It’s a good plan. Our Heavenly Father thought it up. It’s God’s healthy plan for a healthy church.

So, which practical step of growth will you choose to take today? Maybe you will decide to always link truth with love in communication. Maybe you will decide to get more closely connected to others in the Body through fellowship. Maybe you will decide to do your part to serve in a ministry. Whatever God is leading you to do, take that step toward your own spiritual growth today. (DALE JOHNSEN)

God sent his angel Gabriel to a specific place, a town called Nazareth.  He  knew  where  Mary was,
and He knows where you are. No matter where you go, He will find you. And if you are open to Him, He will speak to you in your innermost being.

Prayer: O God, speak to me at the point of my need. I am listening with my whole heart.

“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

Mary took it all in and pondered it, from the angel’s appearance in Nazareth until the shepherds came and bowed before the Baby. Have you pondered the wonder  of  the  virgin  birth,   God  with  us,  and  all  it
means? I hope you have had a “Mary” Christmas, a pondering, wonder-filled Christmas.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, when we think of Your majestic plan, it fills us with wonder!

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning . . . this child” (Luke 2:17).

What is the best gift you received for Christmas? Have you told anyone about it? If it was truly special, you probably have? Have you told anyone about Jesus?
He is far better than any gift we find under a tree. He is God’s “indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Prayer: O God, thank You for giving us Christ, who is worth talking about!

“. . . they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11a).

The Wise Men bowed before the wisest One who ever lived. The three kings, as they are sometimes called, worshiped the infant King. They presented Him  with  gifts as a part  of their worship.  What  will
you give this Christmas? Why not give Him yourself?

Prayer: O God, this is my gift this Christmas: I give myself to You.

’Tis the season: ADVENT. Contrary to what you hear and see, it’s a season of devotion, not decoration. Herewith, my personal five-point guide on how to use this month to prepare for a frenzy-free Christmas.

1. Make Your List
Brainstorm gift ideas for Jesus, considering what He wants most. Best bet: the time-tested trio of golden forgiveness, sweet-smelling humility and the balm of a contrite heart.

2. Figure Out Your Plan
Worry less about the Christmas tree and more about Christmas triage (the determination of priorities for action). Put first things first: prayer, acts of charity, Scripture. No one’s going to suffer if you use your time to worship God instead of wrap presents.

3. Pump up the Spirit
Find a Bible verse for the month and meditate on it while you bake or shop. I’m choosing Luke 10:41-42: “[I am] worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.” Stay focused.

4. Clean House
Scour your conscience thoroughly. Pay particular attention to corners you’ve overlooked and scrub away excuses. Apologize to those you’ve hurt. And don’t forget the dust bunnies—all the things God asked you to do but which you neglected. Confess thoroughly, and let God make your soul sparkle.

5. Remember Why You’re Doing This
The purpose of Advent isn’t to make people happy or to manufacture warm memories. Those are incidentals that happen automatically when we focus on the real thing: preparing our hearts to greet the infant Lord.

(JULIA ATTAWAY)

Have you ever watched a movie on fast-forward?  It’s not very enjoyable and you won’t understand what’s going on, it is frustrating.  Yet this is often how we view our own lives.  We are trying to live our lives at the wrong speed; wanting to rush to the next scene before we have even understood the one we are in.

If you want to enjoy a movie, you have to sit back and watch it at the speed its creator intended.  Only then will you begin to appreciate the amazing cinematography, the cast of characters, the depths of tragedy and moments of joy, and the plot as it unfolds according to the design of the director.

God has the storybook of your life all mapped out.  He has all the scenes in mind, knows each of the cast of characters intimately, and has the plot slowly working towards an incredible ending.  But for us to really appreciate this, for us to enjoy and understand our life, requires we sit back and view our life at the speed God intended.  God’s speed is ‘patience’.  This is the speed with which God sees us, and it’s through His eyes that we should see ourselves.

This is not only true for our own lives, but also for those around us.  It’s important that we view others with the same patience that God does.  If we would be like Christ, whether in our inward life or in our dealings with other people, we must grasp patience. Then we will gain Godly insight into life.

What is it in your life that causes you to reach for the remote?  What is it that you want to fast forward through to the next scene?  It is probably suffering or difficulty of some sort, perhaps boredom or apparent delay.  Whatever it is, resist the temptation to skip right to next scene.  There is purpose for this event in your story.  Trust God that it will all make sense in the end.

Patience is a lot like faith.  Without it, your life will be a constant source of frustration.  Exercising patience is not much different to exercising faith, and like faith, it will eventually yield a valuable crop.

Pray for patience, for the ability to persevere through suffering, to see your life from God’s perspective.  Pray that God might give you patience for others.  Look forward to what the Lord will finally bring about, for He is full of compassion and mercy.                                                         (SIMON WHITTON)

We wear masks because we want to appear more perfect than we really are. But the reality of it is, all of us are so very imperfect. Yet we persist in wearing masks to hide who we really are from others because we fear their disapproval, believing that we have to present ourselves in a certain way in order   to   fit   in   and   be   accepted.
We are afraid of letting people see the real “us,” so depending on the occasion or circumstance we slip on a mask to fit the need of the moment. At work we may throw on a mask of authority and power in order to seem like we’re in control of our environment. At home we may put on a mask of “everything is okay,” out of fear that our spouse might stop loving us if they find out we have real problems. Some people wear their super-religious masks to conceal the guilt and shame of their secret sins. Sometimes we wear our happy-face mask to conceal our fear, anger, hurt, worry, and even depression.

Many of us Christians wear masks. We pretend to be something that we are not. We have our “Sunday mask.” We have our “model-parent mask.” We have our “happy Christian mask,” etc. etc. We try to hide our true character from each other, and even more amazing, we think we can hide our true character from God!

But masks are like fig leaves, and God can see through fig leaves! And He can see through our masks just as easily. We need to quit trying to hide from God and let Him change our character so we don’t have to wear masks and fig leaves anymore.

The word “integrity” means being the same on the outside as you are on the inside. It is about being the same person when you are at home all alone in the dark, as you are when people are watching you. We need to become men and women of integrity. All of us come to God broken. That’s a fact! Maybe it’s alcoholism, pornography, adultery, drug addiction, selfishness, gossip, a nasty temper, greed, or envy. What is it that hides behind your mask? It doesn’t matter. In Christ there is genuine and complete cleansing and forgiveness. Moreover, God forgets what we were and only sees us as we are now in Christ Jesus. The masks can come down now. We don’t have to pretend with Him. He knows everything, and He loves us anyway. How cool is that?

Let take off our stupid masks since they don’t work anyway, and let’s make sure that we don’t slip them back on. And remember, God loves parties, but His are always “come-as-you-are parties,” not “masquerade balls.”
(MIKE WILSON)