focus on faith

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – Reflections and directions for 2024

Isaiah 43:18-19 - “Do not remember the past events; pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” 

The world that we live in is ever-changing. Some of the challenges we are facing include climate change, wars and military conflicts, global health issues, and poverty to name a few. Each of us face our own personal challenges in life, both individually and as families.

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – “Not-So-Wise Men”

As with most popular stories, the arrival of the three wise men (or kings) at the manger on Christmas night has been a little embellished. We have a tendency to add details that aren’t actually there in the text. Details that are necessary in order to paint paintings or put on pageants or make movies. The Bible rarely gives us a script ready for reproduction. That’s why we smash Matthew’s Christmas story and Luke’s Christmas story together and put up nativity scenes with as many people (and animals) as we can get.    

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – We are called by name

Who named you? We all had someone give us our names. Maybe it was your Mom or Dad who named you or perhaps it was an aunt, uncle or grandparent. Our name is an important way that we identify ourselves. For instance, it is the first way that we introduce ourselves to someone else – my name is such and such and what’s your name. 

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – At just the Right Time…

In the 2nd chapter of Luke we find what is commonly referred to as the Christmas story.  

Luke records there the fantastic details of Christ’s birth in a manger in Bethlehem. As we ponder those details, I want us to see that what seems like the humble birth of just another baby, is in reality the hinge point of human history and part of a plan that was in the making from before the beginning of the world. A plan that moved empires to accomplish it’s purpose.

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – Too many mangers, not enough beds

Do you remember the days leading up to the birth of your first child? There are always challenges and anxieties when children are born, but especially when it’s your first. I’m reminded of this while reading the Gospel of Luke. He paints a challenging picture of the days leading up to the Savior’s birth, including traveling 90 miles with a very pregnant woman on the back of a donkey. Looking back now, we can see the glory that was present in those moments. But I believe that living through it in person was a different story. 

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – Our Greatest Gift

Charles Swindoll, Christian pastor, author and educator, once said “I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” 

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – No room in the guest room

It’s hard to criticize the beauty of the King James Version (KJV) of the Christmas story in Luke 2. Much like the Lord’s Prayer with all its outdated language (art, Thy, trespass, Thine), there’s no updating the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Mary is Joseph’s “espoused wife, being great with child.” The shepherds were “sore afraid” when the glory of the Lord appeared. And all of it “came to pass” in those days. 

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – Be thankful for God’s many gifts

Taking the time to find God in our everyday lives isn’t as easy as it would seem.  Because our lives our so busy, God often takes a back seat to everything else that is happening.  After all, there is always someone or something demanding our time.  Most of us seem to be in a constant state of alert there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the week to get everything done.  It is so easy to get TOO BUSY to notice God, TOO BUSY to see God’s presence all around us.

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – God works to draw people to Himself

Lately we have experienced some pretty amazing growth at our church. We have been praying for younger people and couples to come for a couple of years. And God has been steadily bringing them to us!     This week we baptized four people at our church! We are thankful for each one of them. Thankful that God broke into their lives and revealed his love for them and that they,

Focus on Faith

Focus on Faith – That’s impossible!

Here I go again with another pop culture moment. Let me tell you about another one of my favorite movies, “The Empire Strikes Back.” This is second of the three original Star Wars movies. There is one scene in particular in this film that has stuck with me over the years. 

    A boy, Luke Skywalker, is trying to use the ‘force’ to lift his spaceship out of a thick and murky swamp, where it stuck after he crashed it there.