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Pregnant with the Holy Spirit? – Merry Christmas!!!

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Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place under these circumstances: When His mother Mary had been promised in marriage to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant [through the power] of the Holy Spirit.

Are you pregnant with the Holy Spirit? Mary was, and what was conceived in her was none other than Jesus. The Apostle Paul took off on the reality of this event stating, My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,...Galatains 4:19

Praise Jesus today that what has been conceived in you is by, and through the Power of the Overshadowing Presence of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God! Scripture says in James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. AND in 1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Today praise Jesus that Christ is being formed in you – in and by the Spirit, and Word of God!

Today, Christmas, Christ’s Mass or Eucharist, thank and Praise the Father for sending you His Son, and His Spirit, to reconcile you back to Himself; to make you at one with Him – in a moment! Thank Jesus for revealing the Father to you and baptizing and immersing you into the Holy Spirit. Thank Holy Spirit (He’s a person) – for revealing to you Jesus, teaching you the Word, reminding you of Scripture you have read, teaching you to pray, praying through you, discipling you, befriending you, telling you things to come, revealing Scripture to you, feeding you revelation – manna from Heaven, encouraging and exhorting you to grow in Christ’s image. Thank Jesus for the “breaking” of His Body, and the shedding of His Blood, by having communion with Him. Are you pregnant with the Spirit and the Word of God? Remember: Communion is more than a meal! It’s an invitation to open the DOOR! Open the DOOR to commune with Jesus.

Merry Christmas from Jackie and myself!!

Christmas Dishes

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Romans 1:5-7 It is through Him that we have received grace (God’s unmerited favor) and [our] apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the nations,6 And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and invited [as you are] to belong to Him.7 To [you then] all God’s beloved ones in Rome, called to be saints and designated for a consecrated life: Grace and spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jackie Hill Perry, from Outreach Magazine writes: There’s a sermon by Pastor Tony Evans in which he uses an illustration involving dishes to make sense of the term “holy” or “sanctified”. In his home, there are two types of dishes. There are the regular dishes. Those dishes that contain the average meal, on normal days, for your ordinary and unimpressive breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some of them are chipped, maybe even cracked. Then there is another type of dish. These dishes don’t even see the light of day until a tall green tree with multicolored lights flicker. Something significant has to be happening under the roof to make their use a necessity. When all is normal again, the multi-colored lights are unplugged, the wrapping paper collected, and the guests have finally gotten up from the table – these “Christmas” dishes, after being cleaned, aren’t placed in the cabinets with the normal, average, unimpressive dishes. No, absolutely not. They’re placed in an entirely different cabinet, that may be in an entirely different room, separated from everything unlike them because there is nothing in the house like them. They are set apart, unique, different, other, distinct, cut off from what’s considered common. To put it metaphorically, these dishes are “holy.”

Called to be saints? The word saint comes from a root word from which we obtain our word “sanctify”. To be sanctified is to be set apart, and holy. What does it mean to be holy? To be above average, uniquely different from all that is normal, average, and expected. We refer to God as being Holy, and obviously He is above average, and uniquely different from all that is normal, average and expected. But guess what? Because of Jesus’ Blood, and anyone who trust’s in what it accomplishes, God sees them as holy, sanctified, saints. In fact I can confidently say, Saint Robert is writing these words to Saint (whomever is reading this – that is trusting in Jesus’ Blood). It’s not our confidence, or trust in our performance that distinguishes us as such. No, absolutely not. It’s our ongoing confidence, and trust in what Jesus did on the cross that qualifies, verifies, and validates us. Notice I say, ongoing. It’s not simply a past tense event. It’s an ongoing process till you see Jesus face to face. You weren’t simply saved from your past. You are in the process of being saved. The same can be said of sanctification.

Sanctified, set apart to Who or what? Well obviously to the Godhead: the Father, the Son – Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (He is not an IT). But there is more: Romans 1:17 For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith. You, and I, like Christmas dishes, are set apart to grow in faith, through faith, leading to more faith. If you believe in Jesus’ Blood you believe in what that Blood is doing for you, and in you. When you believe that – trust that – you seek to be sanctified, and you grow in faith, through faith, leading to more faith. One compliments the other. Like His Christmas dishes you are set aside to display the Bread and Water of Life – Jesus. During the Christmas season the atmosphere shifts and changes. People change reflecting the reminder of the reason for the season. Now the question becomes, What do you believe about Jesus, His Blood, and His cross? The deeper that work goes the greater the faith grows. Is your faith growing? Are you growing – spiritually? Is your way of thinking aligning more and more with the Word of God? Is your life becoming centered progressively around Jesus? Progressively centered around His Word? Then you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, Hello saint of Jesus. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day Truce 1914

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Isaiah 55:6 Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.

This Scripture couldn’t have ben more true than on December 25, 1914. World War 1 had been raging since July 28, 1914 and Pope Benedict XV had suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. Unfortunately the warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce. History.Com Editors state in an October 27, 2009 article that: The Christmas Truce occurred on and around Christmas Day 1914, when the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front during World War I in favor of holiday celebrations. During the unofficial ceasefire, soldiers on both sides of the conflict emerged from the trenches and shared gestures of goodwill. Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops fighting in World War I sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. Some Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches, and there was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer. German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch recalled: “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.” Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured. During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destroy the Christmas spirit.”

Obviously this isn’t Christmas, and the Stay At Home Order from our governor regarding the Coronavirus Covid-19 hasn’t been raging for five months. Yet in many ways we are at war with an unseen enemy. It’s during this time that small gestures at continuing to gather together as believers through small prayer gatherings, online streaming of services, Zoom Bible classes for youth and children, and prayers – that we are reminded of deeper values: worship, community, friendships, relationships, faith, hope, and love.

As the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus approaches we’ve decided it’s time for a truce with this virus. Not for a Christmas Truce, but a Resurrection Celebration Truce. Though our war with the virus has only been raging for a little over a month it’s time we gather together to worship, celebrate community, all while taking a creative approach to our coronavirus guidelines. This coming Sunday we want to invite you, your family, friends and neighbors to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with us through having “Drive-in Church.” We will begin at 10:30 AM transmitting the service via your car radio, while maintaining social distancing of 6 feet. Some churches that have been practicing this have had members back in to the staged area so that they can pop open the hatch, and listen from a lawn chair. If you plan on this approach come prepared for some rain by bringing an umbrella, and wearing your rain gear.

Lastly, may I remind you of Isaiah 55:6? Seek the Lord while he may be found. The church has been given a window of grace to pursue and seek Jesus. There was a story from the Week magazine regarding a 67 year man by the name of Roger Pasquier. He was a retired ornithologist who has a keen eye for spotting stray coins. In fact, he had found almost two thousand dollars’ worth of coins dropped onto New York City’s sidewalks since he started his strange hobby back in 1987. As years passed by, he began to be focused, developed some strategies and implemented some scientific methods to keep track of collecting loose coins and bills. Most of the time, Pasquier hovers around bars, targeting careless drunk people, and avoids eye contact with other pedestrians. “It’s important that I keep my eyes on where the money is.” Crucially, he deploys his expert knowledge of birds—and their use of “search images”—as a guide. “They have a general sense of what their food looks like and they become very attuned to those shapes.” He had been so adept to this that he can spot a coin by its shape or by the sound it makes when it drops. But his biggest boon has been the introduction of the iPhone. Since its invention in 2007, Pasquier’s annual takings have nearly doubled, because most people are too busy staring at their phones to notice coins on the street.

Have you been too busy staring at the deadline of our “Stay At Home Order” missing the opportunity to seek Jesus and His Presence? It’s important that we keep our spiritual eyes focused on where our real treasure lies. The treasures of God’s Grace and Spirit are being released on the earth at this time. Question is, Are you attuned enough to hear its sound as its dropping? Merry Christmas!