“Your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.” —Lee Daniels
One of my favorite Christmas movies is Miracle on 34th Street, where a well-timed letter to Santa Claus arrives at the courthouse to tip the scales of justice for Kris Kringle. The US Postal Service reports that they still get thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Have you ever wondered what happens to them. The Smithsonian has the heart-warming story.
“The more we learn from God’s Word about how creation praises and reveals Him, the better able we will be to explain His revelation to others. But we’re not content for people merely so experience some revelation of God from the things He has made. We want them to know Jesus. For that, we’ll have to lead them to the Scriptures. The better we know the Scriptures and are daily immersed in them, the more we will see Jesus there and be made like Him. The more we are made like Him, the more we will see Him in all His works, and the more our hope will grow and be visible to others, some of whom may ask a reason for the hope that is within us.” —T.M. Moore
“No priest, no theologian stood at the manger of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders: that God became human. Holy theology arises from knees bent before the mystery of the divine Child in the stable. Without the holy night, there is no theology.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Early Pentecostals generally viewed the observance of the ‘church calendar’ as remnants of liturgical traditions. Apart from Easter and Christmas, there were few days that Pentecostal churches set aside for special services. One exception was New Year’s Eve, when a ‘Watchnight Service’ would be held, typically starting around 7 p.m. and lasting until after midnight.” Check out the notable history of people “praying in the New Year.”
Scott Hubbard writes, “Spiritual health yesterday does not guarantee spiritual health today. So, at the end of a new year, on the edge of another, let’s stop to take some spiritual vitals. How healthy is your soul?” He then gives us six biblically-based questions to help us assess the healthiness of our soul.
And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” (Revelation 19:5-6)
What a song of praise is raised in Heaven!
You can join that heavenly choir every day when your life (and words) express your firm belief that your God is sovereign and you are His servant. That means your life lifts a mighty “Hallelujah!” when you live like this: “Not my will but Yours! May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Not to me, but may all of the glory and honor go to You!”
God has given us an amazing Book! The Bible addresses the human condition—all our desires, frustrations, hopes, and the only path on which we can find eternal and unfading joy.
The Bible not only tells us how to live, but it also tells us how to pray. And it’s as we pray that the principles in the Scripture come alive with fresh applications for our daily life. We don’t have to fumble around, attempting to find the right words to pray and then wondering if those prayers were heard on high. We can learn to pray in agreement with God’s perfect will.
God has spoken to us through His Word, and He invites us to use His words to form our prayers back to Him. I love beginning each new year with a reminder of the power of prayer, so I invite you to join me at Calvary Assembly of God for this life-changing series of sermons called Our Prayer Book.
If you have missed any of the messages, you can find them here:
When we speak God things TO God about God, and when we speak good things TO God about our neighbors, then we will have good things FROM God to speak to our neighbors.
The Greek word for “bless” (eulogeo) literally means good (eu-) words (logos). We can bless people simply by saying good words to them, as well as good words about them to both God and others.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I take some time at the end of each calendar year for a quick recap of everything we have learned during this year at Calvary Assembly of God. I do this because I want to make sure we are all on the same page with each other before we move into a new year. And I also think it’s very important that we are continually reminded and reassured of what God has done for us. In our series on gratitude we talked about the dangers of forgetting to remember and re-tell the blessings of God. We see in the letters from the apostles both a re-telling of their own words, and reusing and amplifying the words of Jesus and other apostles.
You can click on the sermon series title to find a list of all of the sermons in that series. Clicking on those individual sermons will give you a short written recap of that message, and it will also give you the link to watch the video of the full sermon.
Kingdom Praying. Jesus made it clear time and time again that He came to reveal the Kingdom of God to us. He described what the Kingdom was like and told us that He came to be the means by which we could enter God’s Kingdom. He also told us how God’s children could access the power and privileges of our Heavenly Father through the means of prayer. He assured us with words like, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Jesus said quite simply that we had access to our Father through prayer. And then to make sure we didn’t miss out on this awesome privilege, He instructed us, “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:8).
Jots and Tittles. As we get closer to the death and resurrection of Jesus, there are an increasing number of prophecies that are fulfilled in these events. Jesus appears to have been very attentive to making sure that each and every one of these prophecies were fulfilled to the smallest detail. Near the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus noted that not one iota—or “one jot or tittle” in the Old English vocabulary—of any of God’s promises would be left unfulfilled (Matthew 5:18). It’s amazing that Jesus so carefully attended to all of these, but it’s also important to ask ourselves what these fulfilled prophecies mean to us today.
Takin’ Him to the Streets. Just before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told His followers that they would have the joyful responsibility of taking the good news of forgiveness and eternal life to all the highways and byways of every nation. Later on, Paul would get more specific about all of the groups to which he was taking the message of Jesus (see Luke 24:46-47; 1 Corinthians 9:20-22). That commission is still in effect for Christians today: We are to share the gospel with everyone—from easy street to skid row, from Wall Street to Main Street, and every street in between. The streets on which you live and work are different from the streets where I travel. In fact, all of us live on different streets, but everyone we meet on every street needs to hear about Jesus. In this new series of messages, we are going to learn how the Holy Spirit can help us be ready to take Jesus to those on each street where God sends us.
Ascending. Every year, Jews from around the world made four pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for various feasts and sacrifices. These journeys reminded them of God’s goodness as they went to the Temple to worship, and they helped refocus on God’s ways as they returned to their regular routines. Jerusalem is over 2500 feet above sea level, so the pilgrimage there was a physical workout as well as a spiritual workout. These workouts were beneficial for God’s people, preparing them to minister in their cities in the following months. The Book of Psalms contains 15 songs that these pilgrims would sing to and with each other as they traveled up to Jerusalem. These Psalms of Ascent are still instructive for Christians today.
Living in your Gift Zone. God created each and every human being uniquely. We all come in different shapes and sizes, but we all share one thing in common: He created each of us with a unique personality and a unique gift package. By unique, I truly mean that we are all one-of-a-kind creations that have never existed in all of history! Here’s another thing we all have in common: We usually live in a comfort zone that is far smaller than our gift zone. Living this way keeps us from soaring through life in the way that God intended. He wants each of us to know our gifts, and to use our gifts in a way that benefits our world and brings Him glory. It starts with believing that we are indeed gifted by our Creator. Then we must have the courage to step out of our comfort zone into the much larger gift zone God has given us.
Is that in the Bible? A meme that makes me chuckle every time I see it is a “quote” attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which he says, “The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true.” (Not to spoil the joke for you, but unless Lincoln knew how to time travel to the future, I don’t think he knew about the modern internet!). I love this meme because it captures something that so many people fall into: a quick acceptance of a statement without verifying its source or thinking through the implications of the statement’s truthfulness. In this series I think you may be surprised to discover just how many phrases we call biblical aren’t, and how many phrases there are that we never realized are actually in the Bible.
Be Thankful. It’s so easy to spot the negative things. It’s so easy to gripe about the bad stuff with others. It’s so easy to complain about what’s wrong with the world. But the Bible repeatedly calls the saints of God to rise above this downward pull of negativity. In fact, for those who have a relationship with their Heavenly Father, who call Jesus their Savior, and who call the Holy Spirit their Counselor, there is really only one way to live: Grateful!
Christ’s Advents. The word Advent means the appearing—something that bursts onto the scene. At this time of year we are actually thinking about TWO Advents. We look backward in gratitude to celebrate the first Advent of Jesus when He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. And then we look forward in joyful expectation to the second Advent of Jesus when He will return to earth again as King of kings. As Christians live in this time between the two Advents, our celebration and expectation should bring four noticeable attributes from our lives: hope, peace, joy, and love.
This next year promises to be another amazing time of learning and growing. If you live in northern Kent County and don’t have a home church, I would love for you to visit us!
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The lights of hope, peace, and joy burn brightly. They drive out the darkness in our own lives and in the lives of others with whom we come in contact. But you and I both know lots of people who are very positive people—always upbeat, seemingly peaceful and joyful. The real question is: What is the source of this light? Or more specifically, how do people know that you are hopeful, peaceful, and joyful because you know Jesus as your Savior and King?
Jesus said there were two proofs that we are His followers:
That we love others (John 13:35)
That we are producing God-honoring fruit (John 15:8)
God IS love—it’s His very nature. Just like an apple doesn’t have the capacity for apple-ness but is by its nature an apple, so God doesn’t have the capacity for love, or love more than others, but He is by His nature Love.
Any qualities of hope, peace, and joy in our lives have to originate from God’s love. We cannot manufacture these fruits, but they are a natural result of our being connected with Love Himself.
Love is what brought Jesus to earth at His First Advent (John 3:16-17; Romans 5:5-8). And we can only love others and produce the fruit of hope, peace, and joy because Jesus went first and became our Source (1 John 4:19; John 15:1).
Love brought Jesus to earth at His First Advent, and Love is what empowers us to be loving and fruitful between His Advents.
Love one another means that love serves (John 13:1-5, 15-17, 34-35)
Bear much fruit means that love grows (John 15:1-12)
We can only serve and be lovingly fruitful as we stay connected to Love (2 Peter 1:2-7; 1 John 2:28).
Love brought Jesus to earth at His First Advent, Love is what empowers us to be loving and fruitful between His Advents, and Love is what patiently waits for Christ’s Second Advent (2 Peter 3:3-4, 9).
We continue to grow in our love and produce fruit by being connected to the Vine of Love (1 Corinthians 13:11-12; 1 John 3:1-2 ; Hebrews 10:23-24).
This means we live every moment as though the Second Advent is imminent. Because it is!
We need to let our love be continually supplied by Love Himself so that our fruitfulness can shine as a bright testimony. Jesus said, He was the Light of the world, and then He called us to be the light to our part of the world where He has placed us (John 8:12; Matthew 5:14-16).
Always remember that we celebrate the First Advent and look forward to the Second Advent by staying connected to Jesus, growing in our love for Him and for others, and allowing the fruit of hope, peace, and joy to shine brightly for God’s glory.
God Almighty—in all of His holiness—lives in unapproachable brilliance in highest Heaven. And yet He also chooses to abide with those who humbly admit their desperate need of His mercy and forgiveness!
You can check out the full sermon from which this clip came by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
We have the candles of hope and peace burning brightly. Romans 15:13 tells us that our hope in God’s fulfilled promises and our hope in His fulfilling of His future promises is what brings us not only peace but joy as well.
William Gurnall noted, “Joy is the highest testimony which can be given to our peace.” That means that hope bubbles up in peace and joy, but joy then sustains and fuels future hope, which allows us to experience peace all over again!
The English dictionary has the right definition for joy: the emotion of great delight caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying. Unfortunately, all of the examples the dictionary gives for joy are fleeting external things.
The Bible makes it quite clear that pleasure is not the same thing as joy, but still people try to find what they call joy in things that bring them pleasure. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”
Just ask the wisest and richest man who ever lived: King Solomon. He wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes which is all about his pursuit of pleasure, yet every attempts ends with him crying, “Vanity! Meaningless!” But notice something: every time he says this, the phrase “under the sun” is adjacent to it. In other words, nothing on earth can provide true joy.
Paul experienced the same thing in the New Testament (see Romans 7:18-20).
Just like we said about these candles that darkness is not the opposite of light, but it is the absence of light, so too, this wretched state of joylessness is the absence of things that are eternally satisfying.
That means we need something other-worldly—something higher than the sun—to truly bring light and satisfaction. The prophet Isaiah foretold the light that Jesus would bring from Heaven, and this light would be our eternal joy and salvation (Isaiah 9:1-3, 6-7; Matthew 1:21).
Notice how the angelic announcement of Christ’s birth ties together the thoughts of joy with Savior (Luke 2:8-11).
Isaiah foretold this First Advent which Jesus fulfilled (Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:18-19), and which Paul come to discover as well (Romans 7:24-25).
Another biblical definition for the word joy is delighting in God’s grace in our trials because we understand that these trials enlarge our capacity for even greater joy. This is the joy we can know as we live between the two Advents of Jesus. We see this in the example of Jesus fixing His eyes on the eternal joy even as He walked toward Calvary, and how His Father then exalted Him for that (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 2:9-11).
In a similar, Jesus prepares us for the joy following our time of grief (John 16:17-24). The writer of Hebrews agreed with this (Hebrews 12:11), as did the writer of the 126th Psalm (notice the word joy being used four times in just six verses here!).
The Second Advent of Jesus will be eternally satisfying joy beyond anything we can imagine! I love how Isaiah 35 foretells what we can read on the last pages of the Book of Revelation.
This thought from Charles Spurgeon is spot-on: “We who trust in Jesus are the happiest of people, not constitutionally, for some of us are much tried and are brought to the utter depths of poverty, but inwardly, truly, our heart’s joy is not to be excelled.”
May we all live in that hope-filled, peace-fueled joy every single day until Christ returns or calls us Home!
If you missed it, check out the lights of hope and peace in our previous messages in this series by clicking here.
The apostle Paul lists three indispensable qualities of a godly leader. Remove even one of those qualities, and you no longer have a godly leader. I dive deep on these qualities (and more) in my book Shepherd Leadership.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
T.M. Moore wrote, “We are God’s poems, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, where the Greek word for ‘workmanship’ is ποίημα, poiema—poem. Perhaps this is why we find it pleasurable when others take an interest in us and want to get to know us better. They’re asking us to ‘read’ our ‘poem’ to them. What fun! And God wants us to know, love, enjoy, and serve Him by all the things He has freely given to us and which He seeks to ‘read’ to us day by day.”
“Saints” is always plural in the Bible. That means we always need to be looking out for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the words James uses to close his letter to the saints.
✅ Gather frequently to encourage others
✅ Reach out to those who are absent
✅ Speak the truth in love
✅ Exhort and encourage
✅ Forgive and ask for forgiveness
✅ Restore quickly and gently
Anthony Kidd warns about something I address in my book When Sheep Bite. “Inherent to our calling as shepherds is the task of looking out for the flock of God and protecting it from savage wolves and false shepherds. However, Paul emphasizes here that one of the greatest threats to the church can emerge from within its own leadership ranks, making self-awareness a critical aspect of pastoral leadership.” Read this full article about the earning signs of diseased leadership.
More amazing findings that show the incredible beauty and wisdom of our Creator! The ICR reports, “Insects, such as the winged insects in the order Lepidoptera, continue to reveal incredible abilities with some facets that zoologists thought were reserved only for vertebrates.”
When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” However, Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. (Acts 28:4-5)
The residents of Malta thought the apostle Paul was experiencing karma.
The idea of “karma”—blessings or penalties for our good or bad deeds—has been a human mindset since the beginning of time.
This is really the mindset among Job’s three friends: Good things always happen to good people and bad things always happen to bad people. Except Job’s friends were wrong. We know this because we see behind the scenes in Heaven at the beginning of the story, and we hear God reprimand these men at the end of the story.
“Karma” isn’t how God operates. God fulfills His plan, regardless of what people do or don’t do.
In this story in Acts 28, God had promised Paul, “You must testify about Me in Rome,” so Paul was invincible until that promise from God was fulfilled.
To chalk things up to “karma” is to deny God’s sovereign plan. We have to guard our minds against this kind of thinking because it slips in so naturally. A part of renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2) is not jumping to our conclusion, but trusting that God is sovereignly at work.
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Craig T. Owens 