Merry Christmas, 2010

Merry Christmas to you. We saw lots of animals at Hosanna's Christmas Eve service. We had a nice evening seeing my family last night. We ate oyster stew and lots of Christmas cookies. We watched 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' after we opened presents. And my son was as excited as I've ever seen him, from his grandparent's gift of a Nintendo DSI. It has a camera, voice recorder, and of course, the games. Right before bed, he explained that Santa might bring him some more DSI games. I asked him how could Santa know that Elijah was going to receive a DSI from his Nana and Papa? He said, simple dad, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when your awake. He just knows these things.

Have you thought about the phrase "have a Merry Christmas"? This thought is all over the place during Christmas-time. Here's a few examples off of the top of my head – have a holly, jolly Christmas. Joyful, joyful we adore you. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Joy to the World, etc… So why is having a "Merry Christmas" such a big theme at this time of year?

Yes, I know this time of year is hard for a number of people, especially for those who have lost loved ones during the preceding year. And the pressure of wrapping up work year-end reports and projects, and the culture driven drive to find the "perfect" gift for those close to us, is upon us all. So with all these things working against us, why should Christmas time be a time of joy and merriment?

If there is any chance for joy during this time of the year, it is only in Christ Jesus. This message of joy to the world was clearly provided by angels to the shepherds at the first Christmas:

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:10-12).

 

So the baby Jesus, the Lord come to Earth, the Savior, is the "good news of great joy" for us. And don't miss the point made by the angels at the end of verse 10 – this joy is for all people, not just Christians. So my hope for you this Christmas is that we be given more light, more smiles, more laughter, more joy for us, through the remembering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's birth. So go out there and have a Merry Christmas!

Displeasing the Lord

We are coming to the last week before Christmas here at the Wolff homestead. All of Peggy and the children's shopping is completed. And what about me? I haven't even started yet. So it looks like a busy week ahead for me.

My wife's the best. My wife received recognition this past week on a local radio station (KTIS, which is a Christian Contemporary music station). Here is what she did: she saw that a neighborhood teenage boy was wearing clothes totally inappropriate for this Minnesota winter. He was always wearing shorts, and his tennis shoes were torn along its sides. The boy's mother is a single working mom, and she was stressed out because she didn't have the time or money to help her son out. Peggy learned that the boy didn't have any winter clothes. So Peggy took the kid out to a store that has nice clothes for dirt cheap prices, and was able to get him new winter clothes, a new pair of shoes, without breaking the bank. The boy was happy and grateful. But the mom was so relieved and thankful, that she had to let others know what Peggy had done. So she called the radio station and let them know what a wonderful act of love that Peggy had shown. Peggy has the best heart around, and it is so cool that she received this 'shout-out' from someone she helped.

For today's topic, I wanted to bring up a story from 2nd Samuel which caught my attention. 2nd Samuel deals with King David, after he rises to become King of Israel. David is expanding Israel's borders by defeating the pagan city-states neighboring Israel. And God's hand is with him – he achieves victory after victory. God's relationship with David was special – God's Word describes him as a "man after God's own heart". God loves David. But we see from the story of David and Bathsheba, how God's relationship works even with those whom He loves. During this particular spring described in chapter 11, David decides to stay home instead of going out to lead his armies. He's lounging on a couch, and decides to take a stroll on the King's roof. While out on this stroll, he sees a young lady taking a bath. And even though David has lots of wives and concubines, he asks after this beautiful woman. David learns that she is married to one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite (what's a Hittite?) And he still takes her, and has sexual relations with her. You know the story from here – Bathsheba becomes pregnant, and David ends up ordering the death of his faithful and honorable soldier Uriah. One sin leading to many other sins. It's a tragic story.

But the verse that caught my attention is 2 Samuel 11:27, which says: "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." David displeased the Lord? I think I am like most Christians in thinking that my sins are always covered by God's Grace. My sins are placed on the Cross, and covered by the Blood of Jesus. Grace is a wonderful doctrine that is so freeing, my actions don't make God love me any greater or less in providing me with my salvation. But then I see someone like David who is a Bible hero, and greatly loved by God, but David still "displeased" the Lord. I'm not sure that this verse truly brings out the emotion of God from what David had done. You know, David committed a sexual sin, lied, and eventually caused the death of an honorable man. "Displeased" just doesn't seem to accurately describe what God is feeling here. A couple of other Bible translations describe it as "David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord" (NASB), or even "the Lord was angry at what David had done" (CEV), I think this brings out God's feeling a bit more clearly. God was angry and though He loved David, God was going to do something about it.

So for today's believers, can we make God angry like King David did, even though we are covered by the Blood of Jesus? Well, of course! If you need a New Testament verse, let's go to Revelation 3:19, which says:

"I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference." (NLT)

These verses show that being in a relationship is difficult. Our actions hurt and even make others angry. And being in a relationship with God is no different. God wants the best for us, and He acts to help grow us into the righteous people that He wants us to be. So my take away application is this – are you willing to ask God if there is anything in your life that is making Him angry? Let us appreciate God's Grace enough to not view sin with "indifference". Have a peace-filled and thankful ending week of Christ's advent. /s/Tom

What was the Best Gift You’ve Given?

As we are buried in 6" of snow here in Burnsville, I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit. A week ago, I sat out in front of the Microcenter store for 45 minutes on a cold, Back Friday morning, getting a gift for one of my children. With this, I am thinking about the whole idea of gifts, and I kicked around the idea of the best gift that has been given. So I will ask those of you who visit my Blog – what was the best gift that you have given?

This topic came up when my friends and I were talking about an appropriate response for a really good gift – what is more important: to receive a "thank you", or to see the Recipient truly enjoying the gift as much as you hoped.

Isn't this an easy one? Of course, we expect our children to have the good manners enough to say "thank you". But isn't it much more important to see them actually enjoy the gift, and take real pleasure in using the gift. When I was growing up, there are a few gifts that bring back special memories. The time I woke up early and found a toy baseball player. It had a stand to hold the baseball, and if you hit his head, he swung and popped the baseball. I was sitting there for an hour, playing with this toy, while the rest of my family was sleeping. It was great and a pure moment of joy for me.

Another favorite Christmas gift my family received was an early Apple computer. The computer was connected to our television, and so the whole family played a murder mystery game called "Cranston Manor", with everyone shouting out clues we saw and things we should try. And then my brothers and I played a game called Olympic Decathlon. This crazy game had you pound the keyboard arrows to move the Olympic runner – so the faster you pounded the keys, the faster your athlete went. We spent many hours in front of that computer, and it left me with many happy memories from that time in my life. We also went through many keyboards from playing the Decathlon game!

I don't even remember if I told my father "thank you" for those gifts. But I know he saw the happiness his gifts brought to us. And I am sure that was more important to him – to see his gift received with joy. Which brings me to the point of this post – what does God want from us in response to His Gift of salvation through Jesus' death on the Cross? Jesus' sacrifice in our place is the Best Gift given to humanity, and so it is an important question - Does God expect us to just say "thanks", and then not do anything with this Gift? Yes, saying "thank you" is important, but it can't be nearly as important as having an appreciation of this Gift? Perhaps even a life changing appreciation.

So my take away application is this – what should our response be to God's Gift of His Son? How should we should we show our acceptance and appreciation of this Gift? As we go through this Christmas 2010 season, I hope this post helps you in thinking of ways that we can show our heavenly Father our true gratitude. In Christ, /s/Tom