That's Not How Christmas Is Supposed To Be!

When I was about five years old I was in my first Christmas play at Temple Baptist Church, here in Dalton. Me and another boy were supposed to be Sheppard’s and sing "Away In A Manger." I can still remember every word of the song. Don't worry I wont sing it that would scare people! Anyways, when it came our time to sing our BIG song we started out good. But about the second verse the other little boy got stage fright or something and went running off the stage to his mother. Now this made me mad! After the program I told my mom that he ruined the play and I was afraid that people would think that was the way the first Christmas was. One of the Sheppard’s got scared and ran off! I told her that was not the way Christmas was supposed to be! As I think back to that childhood memory I wonder if that's what God is thinking about how we treat Christmas today. God is saying that is not the way Christmas is supposed to be! The way we treat Christmas as such a rush time and everyone is running around tying to get this gift bought or get that tree up. And when God wants us to simply take the time to celebrate His Son Birth. “Away In A Manager” was our Lord was born to be able to die for our sins. Is that what we are sharing with others this Christmas season? Or is our Christmas not going to be the way it is supposed to be! 

Merry Christmas!

Rob

 

iPhone Test Blog

With my iPhone in hand always, I wanted to see if I could write on my blog on the go. Right now am sitting at my chair working on some youth messages and drinking my coke. Our phones are the link to the world so why not write on our blogs from them. Take a chance and see of you can blog on the go!

Life Changes Fast!

One day your trying to deceided what college to go too, then the next day your trying to find the right job, church, friends, and then who you may marry. During these times in our lives so much can and will get in the way. Like tests, trials, relationships, broken relationships, and then there are the things we cannot control. I often wonder if our lives are ever mint to be normal! I know sometimes in my life I let the little things get in my way. Like a bill I have to pay, a TV show, movie, of even if I have enough gas to get me there. I know that The Lord has plans for us to make the most out of this life.

 

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

 

 But do we or I follow Him compleletly? Or do we try to get off on our own plan for our lives? Some say the most we can do it hope it all turns out okay. But Christ says that we must pray and seek His will for our life and He will show us the way.

 

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”

Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

When will we ever learn to trust in Him with all things and not let the Fast Lane of Life take us elsewhere? My prayer for today is that we all will seek and trust in Christ’s plan for us and look to Him for our direction in life.

Green, Yellow, Red Lights and Sin

Man, what a week... I have been working as the bank's courier all week. So I have been driving almost 200 miles a day. And as luck with have it, I got two tickets this week. One of them was one of those tickets that are issued to you with a camera for running a Yellow light. Stupid, I think. Then the other one was in town and the police office said I accelerated through a Yellow light. Now I don’t know about you, but I have never heard that was a violation before. But these two tickets got me to think about yellow lights and sin. Let me explain.., Sin is a lot like a yellow light. We see all the warning signs that we are about to sin. Temptation is not a sin so it is a Green Light. I mean even Jesus was tempted.

 

Matthew 4:1-11

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"  Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him

But when we begin to fall in to temptation God give us a warning that says hey stupid, the is LIGHT Yellow and is about to turn RED and you need to slow down and stop, but we as human will sometime speed up and go right ahead and charge though. Thinking we can make it. We allow ourselves to get so close to our temptations (YELLOW Lights) then when it is too late, BANG, we have ran the (RED Light) and committed a sin. Now with this sometimes we get caught right away. As in my case when the police office was sitting on the corner. So with our sin, we may use a sinful world and everyone hears it. But then sometimes the consequences is not felt or realized until later. Like with my ticket that came in the mail a few days later. Example we go to far with our boy / girl friend one night and end up having sex before marriage. There may not be any consequences at first, but years later this may change your whole life! But either way we are going to pay the price for running life’s YELLOW lights or breaking God’s commandments. I just wonder how many YELLOW lights of life I have ran and not even realized it yet. Maybe we should slow down and when we come to those points in our life and begin to see the warning that The Lord is giving us we need to go ahead and come to a complete stop, so we can drive in this thing called life safely and go though the Green lights more and enjoy the ride and not worry about falling in to temptation.