Author: Scott

This morning’s reading could be pretty challenging for us. But it’s definitely something we need to think about. When God created us, the plan was for us to live in harmony with him.  Sin came in and changed all of that. Sin changed our hearts. That meant greed and selfishness came around. God’s solution to that was, and still is, pretty amazing. Jesus. He sent Jesus to bring us back into harmony with him. Having a relationship with Jesus gives us the tools to combat sin. Gives us the tools to live a life pleasing to God. 

Here’s where it gets difficult for many of us. If we understand God‘s grace, then we know it allows us to live in unity. What happened on the cross paved the path for us to live in God‘s family. All of us! Jesus’s sacrifice eradicated all division: Cultural, racial, political, financial, etc.  All division! The Bible tells us that we are all sinners. We know that. But the Bible also tells us that we are all loved beyond our imaginations. All of us! So that includes people around us that we do not necessarily like. 

Living under God‘s grace means living a life together. Loving one another as Christ loves us. Maybe the hardest thing for believers to do. Loving others that we do not like. Wow. Read that again. Loving others that we do not like. But just think if we could do that. Think if the world could do that. Just think of the lost who could come to know Jesus if this was the case. And then if they know Jesus, they can live under God’s grace as well. Living a life knowing a hope and a peace that only comes from him. Living a life knowing what awaits them for eternity. So today, let’s try to love others. Even those not in our circles. Let’s celebrate this season honoring God by truly loving others. I am aware that this is difficult. But let’s still try. Because God loves us. Always has. Always will.

We always like to say that it takes a family to do what we do. It takes a family to battle veteran suicide. And we all have our roles. Whether you are one of our guides, volunteers, supporters, etc. We all have our roles. And each one of them is important. They help each other. That’s how we succeed. Helping each other as we serve God together.

The Great Commission calls for us to go out and make disciples. To go out and show God‘s grace to the world. Trying to show hope and a peace the only comes from Jesus. The Bible tells us that we are all part of one body. And that we belong to Jesus. Unfortunately, not everyone knows this or believes this. But it’s true. We belong to Jesus. And carrying out the mission requires us all. Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And I think that is beautiful.

So maybe today is the day for you to find your role. Or at least start looking for it. Don’t let the great liar deceive you. Don’t let him convince you that you are not worthy. He will do all he can to bring you down and keep you from serving. And he is good at that. But remember this, as good as he is at what he does, our Lord and Savior is even better at what he does. His strength is greater. His love is bigger. His kingdom is forever. And even more amazing, the victory has already been declared. The cross did that for us. So as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, let’s remember we are all part of the same family, on the same mission, working towards the same goal. Eternity in heaven. Because…Jesus loves you. He loves me. He always has. He always will.

Isn’t it amazing that we have access to God through Jesus. His life, death, and ultimately his resurrection, give us this access. He is our everlasting father. He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our protector. And above all else, he is our Lord and Savior. We must strive to be like him. He is the example of how we should love others. The Bible is full of stories showing us how we should do this. God will not give up on us. He will be there. Even when we turn our back on him, and run from him, he will be there. Waiting for our return. Even when we break his heart, he will be there. His love will not waiver. The story of the Prodigal Son is a great example of this. The father in the story never gave up hope. Always praying for his son‘s return. I have a similar experience.

My high school basketball coach became my father figure after my dad passed away. I was 15. Throughout high school, he used his position in my life to teach me values and lessons of life. I always found it interesting that he would find out what I was doing. And he would make sure to correct me in his not so subtle ways. (Those that knew him, will understand this.) All the while, I never wanted to accept his teachings. I was determined to be my own man. Didn’t think I needed him. As I got into college, I drifted away from him. Started to really follow my own path. Made my own decisions. My own choices. Which would eventually lead me to being paralyzed. 

In the hospital, before I could even talk, those around me told me he was going to come visit. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to hear his lessons. I was embarrassed because I was paralyzed doing things that he told me I shouldn’t do. I had let him down. When he came in, I remember being anxious. Waiting for him to say something to correct me. But all he did was bend down and kiss me on my forehead. I will never forget that. He was still there for me. I knew I was in for a long road. But, I also knew he was in my corner. I could face what I had ahead of me. And in January 1992, he is the one who led me to Christ. He had never given up. Always loved me. Just as Christ loves us. He always has. He always will.

The last two days we’ve covered points about forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. We mentioned that to those can be very hard for some people to do. Myself included. But they are both important for us in order to have pure hearts. And we need pure hearts to serve God. The third point of forgiveness is the most important of the three. Being forgiven by Jesus is by far the most important decision we can make in our lives. We must break our hearts and ask for forgiveness of our sins. 

I have been asked many times, “How can I be forgiven for what I have seen and what I have done?” It really is a great question. And I get it. We are sinners. How is forgiveness possible? There’s really only one answer for this. Jesus. That’s how it’s possible. His sacrifice on the cross took care of that for us. We cannot do anything to earn forgiveness. We don’t even deserve it. But Christ’s love for us is so great, that it is there for us to receive simply by asking for it. 

How incredible! God loves us so much, he sent his son to die on the cross for us. So we can receive forgiveness and spend eternity in heaven with him. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will. Maybe today is the day for you to ask for forgiveness. To take Jesus into your I heart. Make the greatest decision for your life that you can make. If you haven’t already, just open your heart and ask Christ to forgive you. He’s waiting. He’s there. All you have to do is ask.

Yesterday we talked about how we need to forgive ourselves to have a pure heart. And that we need a pure heart to serve God. The second point of forgiveness I want to discuss is forgiving others. Just as forgiving ourselves might be the hardest to do of the three points we’re going to make, forgiving others might be the hardest to do for some of us as well. 

When someone wrongs us, or wrongs someone that we care about, we must try to forgive them. I am fully aware how hard this is. Because I am as guilty as the next of not forgiving. Not so much when someone wrongs me. I can brush that off. But when someone harms my family, especially my wife or children, I want to retaliate. I want them to pay for what they’ve done. I want them to feel the same pain that they have caused. Actually, I want them to suffer more. And I want to be the cause of these to them. These are all my natural responses as a husband and father. I’m sure many of you feel the same way. But, I have learned over time that I must forgive them instead. WE must all learn to do this. 

Here’s why. First off, the Bible tells us we must forgive others. In order to be forgiven we must do so. Plain and simple. It’s a command. Secondly, forgiving others is not a gift for them. It does not release them from what they have done. They are still guilty. And I am completely fine with them being held accountable. Forgiving them, releases US. It is a gift to us. It is an amazing gift to us. How is that? It releases us because it takes that off of our shoulders. It takes away the constant burden of wanting to retaliate. It takes the hate out of our hearts. We probably will never forget. Nothing wrong with that. We can learn from these types of situations. And we can grow stronger. But forgiving is going to give us a peace in our hearts again. We can sleep better. We can go about our days better. And just like the first point we made yesterday, it helps make our hearts pure. Which allows us to better serve our God. Which we all should strive to do. Because he loves us. Always has. Always will.

This morning I was thinking about what I wanted to write about. The topic of Forgiveness kept coming to mind. It is not one of my favorites, so I kind of brushed it off. But as I began reading, Ephesians 4:32 popped up. That’s a God-wink for you. So the next three days will be my thoughts on forgiveness.

My first point is that we must forgive ourselves.  This might be the hardest type of forgiving for some of us to do. Many of us have tremendous guilt for the things that we have seen or done. I know I do. And I have had many veterans tell me the same thing. But we must do so because we are called to serve our Lord and Savior. And in order to do that, we must have a pure heart. Forgiving ourselves is one of the steps to making our heart pure. 

Another part of this that’s important is the witness we provide to other people. When we forgive ourselves, others will see the relief we have for releasing that burden. The things we were holding onto are no longer be holding us down. We won’t forget those things. They are part of us. And we can learn from them. We can be stronger for going through those moments. But they don’t need to define us. They don’t need to keep us from feeling the grace we receive from God. They don’t need to keep our hearts from being pure. So today, let’s not let them. If you haven’t done so, forgive yourself. Release yourself. Let go of those things that are keeping you down. Pray to God to help you do so. He will. Because he loves you. Always has. Always will.

It’s no secret that God created us. Therefore we belong to God. We are his. Just as a newborn child belongs to his or her parents. All that we have and we are, we owe to God. Since we are part of his creation, God loves us. And he will protect us.

One aspect of being human, being part of the creation, is our need to belong to something. We need to feel connected to something. We need to be accepted and loved. Unfortunately, this inherit need can lead us to make bad decisions and choices. We find ourselves seeking things of this world. Wanting to belong to the wrong groups. Looking for everything except for what is in God. Many of us may feel more strongly about belonging to our families, our social circle, racial or ethnic group, or other groups than we do about belonging to God.

Sometimes it’s easier for us to believe that we are “self-made” by our own creation. But as soon as we realize we are created in him, and created for his purpose, our sense of belonging changes. Then we can truly submit our lives to him. We can submit ourselves to serving him. We then know that we are his treasure. He values us. And then we can show others this same value and love. The same hope and peace that only comes from God. No matter where we are in life, we can do this. In our work. In our hobbies. In our passions. We can show God’s love to everyone around us. Helping them realize that they are part of his creation as well. How glorious is that! Pretty awesome.

The Bible is full of countless miraculous stories. Stories about Jesus doing amazing things. He gave sight to the blind. A paralyzed man walked. He calmed storms. He fed thousands of people. The dead even came back to life. His power is beyond anything that we can ever comprehend. We can try to…”imagine” it. But it’s still beyond your wildest imaginations.

The stories are pretty incredible. Demonstrating what he is capable of doing. I would argue some of his greatest miracles aren’t quite as visible. What I mean is, we don’t see them immediately. For example, a paralyzed man walking is something we see immediately. Even Jesus thought that. But, we must remember that he told his disciples they would do greater things than he did. The stories of Peter and Paul are good examples of that.

We have been called to serve. That is a miracle in itself. The ability to spread the good news is truly miraculous. We get to show hope and peace. We get to show love. We get to show the way to salvation. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus left earth, but left us with this power. And even more miraculous than that, He gave us eternal life. Wow! Is there a greater miracle? I think not. So celebrate Christmas knowing that. Knowing that our God loves us so much, that he has paved the way for us to spend eternity with him. And he has given us the power to show others the same path. Truly miraculous.

Before we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our identities come from the world. How people view us or label us comes from the world. Our identities and labels come from our cultures and our families. They come from people that we do not know. They even come from the ones that we place on ourselves. But it’s important for us to remember, none of these come from God. They are not what God says about us.

But here’s the difficult part. Sometimes hard for us to accept. Sometimes hard for us to believe. When we take Jesus into our hearts, everything about us should change. Including our identities. Including our labels. And others should see this as well. Our walks with Christ should demonstrate this. They should show this. Our “old selfs” have been washed away. Our “new selfs” are brilliant and full of hope. Everything changes. Even how we view God should change. 

Why is this hard to accept? Why is this hard for us to believe? I have had veterans tell me they don’t know how they can be forgiven, from what they have seen and what they have done. I have had civilians say the same thing. The doubt comes into our minds because we are vulnerable during this transition. And it’s during this vulnerability that Satan tries to creep in. Telling us that we have not been changed. That we cannot be changed. But remember, he is the liar. The grand liar. Doing all he can to steal your soul away from Christ. So try to remember this: The Victory Has Already Been Declared! The cross did that for us. Therefore our new identities and labels are real. Christ has you covered. He has taken away the “old”. He has given you the “new”. It may take you a little while to fully believe this. It may take practice. Maybe today is the day for you to start doing so. Maybe today is the day to begin truly believing your heart has been changed. Maybe today is the day to put your energy and efforts into this. Truly believe that God loves you. He always has. He always will.

This morning my memory popped up from last year. It’s a great lesson for us all. So I had to share it. It’s about when I had the opportunity to take my grandson deer hunting. It was a chilly evening. Not as cold as it has been. But chilly enough that after about 45 minutes of being in the blind, Creed had had enough. So he joined Barbara back at the farm house. Helping her do some chores that needed to be done.

As the evening progressed, I had some deer show up. The season was antlerless only. Meaning that bucks were not allowed. Only does. I was out trying to secure some meat for Anna at her new home. And I was able to take one. But it wasn’t until after we approached it that we realized it was a button buck. Not a doe. But still legal. Creed came back down from the farmhouse. This was his first time getting to experience this part of a hunt. He was excited and was taking it all in as one of my close friends field dressed it. It really was a pretty cool moment for me to watch him watch my friend work.  

There were several funny moments with Creed during this time. Six year olds can say the darndest things. But the honesty of children is so humbling. After realizing that it was not a doe, Creed said, “We need to stand it back up.” In his mind we didn’t want to break the law. Not knowing that it was still legal, he was trying to correct a mistake. Trying to make it “OK” for his Opa. I love his heart. This makes me think about us as adults. We make mistakes too. And sometimes we try to correct them. As Christians, we make mistakes. Although I strive not to, I make them daily. But, I love the honesty of our Lord and Savior. I love the accountability with our Lord and Savior. I love the humility of our Lord and Savior. But most importantly, I love the salvation we receive after being forgiven by our Lord and Savior. Without it, I know I would be lost. I would be hopeless. We all would. This is the season of celebrating his birth. Make no mistake about it, it is the birth of our Lord and Savior. So as we celebrate, let’s be thankful for his honesty, accountability, humility, and most importantly, the forgiveness we receive. Because he loves us. Always has. Always will.