“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

Dear Faithful, fearless & fruitful Seed sowers,

“God With Us” is the series that we are working through at The Seed Christian Fellowship of Rancho Cucamongam California! It is my prayer that as we look at the big stories of the Bible we see how God was with all the people and that God is with us, too.  In last week’s Seed of faith we laid a foundation of Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

In this story you can find at least three different groups of people. The conformer, those who bow down and worship the golden statue.  Then there are the informers, those who are jealous of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they will not bow down. This group goes and tells.  And you have the last group, the reformers. The reformers are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They did not bow down. This is how it is recorded in Daniel 3:12 — “But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The convictions, the beliefs and the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego provided their enemy (and  coworkers) with an opportunity to accuse the four men of sedition, disloyalty, subversion and treason. The informers go to work doing what informers do:  they phrase their remarks in such a manner as to work King Nebuchadnezzar into the greatest possible rage and agitation. “Furious with rage” is what we are told.  Nebuchadnezzar brought the three young men before him and probed them for a confession. “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?” Daniel 3:14

No reply is recorded, but there must have been one. They must have told the king that what he had been told about them was correct.

Nebuchadnezzar offered to give them another chance.

Here in this story lies a problem that confronts every follower of the One True God: when the requirements of serving God come into conflict with the demands of a secular world—to whom do you bow down to?

Are you in this story, yet? Put yourself in Babylon, standing in front of the King. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not go to seek more time or to get a professional lawyer’s advice. These young men did not rationalize their options.  They did not try to justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. They simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

What is the king’s reply?  “But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Daniel 3:15

These words written in Daniel 3:16-18 are some of the most memorable verses in the Old Testament.  “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’” Daniel 3:16-18

What in the world? Are you with me? Are you right here in this story? You are standing before the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar with your BFF’s. Here’s a great idea to ponder: What gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the conviction and the faith they needed to remain loyal to? Here’s my answer.  I believe that they knew that the God whom they worshiped and served was sovereign.  They knew their Scriptures and they were not going to worship any false idols.  They were willing to die for their faith.  These three were faithful!

When we read the rest of the story, Nebuchadnezzar is furious with rage; he has his soldiers light the fire in the furnace seven times hotter! Then orders the three men — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego– to be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The furnace is so hot that the soldiers who bound the 3 men together and threw them into the furnace are killed by the intensity and searing heat of the fire. Are you in this story? This is one red, hot fire.

What happens next is miraculous! In the middle of the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar sees not three men, but four. He knows he threw three men into the furnace but now—he sees four in furnace.

Who is the fourth man?

Is this the pre-incarnate Christ?  Is this “GOD WITH US”?

Nebuchadnezzar is astonished and calls for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out of the fiery furnace.  They come out unharmed, no smell of smoke or fire and not a hair is singed.  ARE YOU STILL WITH ME IN THIS STORY ?

These three were fearless and faithful and because they were fearless and faithful, they were fruitful.

Nebuchadnezzar now expresses a profound truth by saying — “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” Daniel 3:28

This past week I celebrated my 23^rd year of ordained ministry. I have served four churches during those 23 years. I have faced elder boards and church kings and queens who would have preferred I had a softer world view of loving Jesus. If only I’d bow just a little bit, I would fit in better with the people and my approval ratings could soar. There was only one problem here for me: I gave up everything in order to follow Jesus. Conform. Inform. Reform. Transform. What would I choose?

What will you choose? Who will you choose when it’s your turn in the fire?

I want to be able to say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

That’s my prayer for each one of us. I want you to be faithful. I want you to know that no matter what fiery furnace you face being thrown into, there’s a fourth man in the fire! His name is Jesus Christ. He is KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. He’s beaten that fiery furnace. He has also defeated hell, death and the grave.  He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of GOD ALMIGHTY. And it is Jesus who will help you to become faithful, fearless, and fruitful.

A long time ago, and I mean a long time ago, it was so long ago that it was during the days I had turned my back on Jesus. I was rambunctious. And I became a part of plan to tell a small fib to the police.  Do you hear me? It was innocent enough. I was at home with my wife but my friend had outrun the police for speeding and somehow ended up at my house. If my friend confessed, he would lose his license. I did what any friend would do. I went to the police station and said it was me. I thought they’d give me the ticket and let me go. Nope. They threw the book at me: evading the police, disturbing the peace and finally lying to the police. Let me tell  you something, my wife was furious with me. She went down to bail me out, and the police interrogated her in a separate room and she sang like a bird! You see, Jac told the truth. She wasn’t going to lie for me. She told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Fortunately for me, they let me go.  The next morning at 6 a.m. the phone rang. It was my Nana. Jac answered the phone and Nana said, “Put David on the phone.” Nana loved Jesus. Nana had raised me. I explained what had happened. (Nana had heard the morning police report!) I will never forget what she told me, “David, all you have is your name. Do not bow to this world. Under zero circumstances, do not bow to this world.” She hung up on me. Listen, I didn’t know it at the time but I know it now. Jesus was the fourth man in that fire. I began to live for Christ again and I’ve not ever bowed to any other God. There isn’t a church that can make me retract my love for God. There’s not an elder board that make me go backwards with fear instead of forward in faith. Like Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me.”

Are you in the fire today? Look around. There’s a champion in there with you. The Lord Jesus Christ is a firefighter like no other. It may get hot but not a hair on you will be singed. Keep your eyes on the one, true God.

I’m praying for you!

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed Sowers,

This is my prayer for you as we travel through some of the big, bible stories together. I pray you remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray the Holy Spirit emboldens you to remain fearless and I pray that you plant all the seeds you can and that those seeds grow each season.

Do you believe these three words: GOD WITH US? or even GOD WITH ME?

How do these three words affect your life? How could these three words affect your life? 

Over the next few weeks, we will spend time together in the Old Testament book of Daniel.  Today we jump into the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and then we find our ourselves in the lion’s den with Daniel.
Get ready! This is going to be a great series to put yourself into the story! Maybe you already feel like you’re there, living the story! Maybe it feels like you have been in a fiery furnace this past year or maybe you’ve found yourself in the lion’s den with this worldwide pandemic.

The GOOD NEWS is found in these three, small, but mighty, words:

GOD WITH US.

GOD WITH ME.

Let’s set the stage for the next two weeks as we study Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel:

Babylon is the ruling power in the days of Daniel.  Nebuchadnezzar is the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar has already attacked the southern kingdom of Judah three times, beginning in 605 B.C. The second invasion occurred in 597 B.C. when Jehoiakim, son of the king of Judah mentioned in Daniel 1:1–2, was compelled to surrender Jerusalem and go into captivity with many of the Jewish leaders, including the royal family, the commanders of the army, craftsmen, and some of the priests like Ezekiel. The third invasion is the one I remember the most. It took place in 586B.C. when Jerusalem was completely destroyed, and the people of the land were deported to Babylon. A side note of interest is that the prophet Jeremiah was in Jerusalem at the time of this final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Daniel and his three friends were taken in the first deportation of the people of Judah under King Jehoiakim.  All four of these young men came from noble or royal descent and were teenagers when taken into captivity. All four had been given Jewish names that reflected their families’ faith and their God: Daniel and Mishael both end in “el’ which is the plural for “Elohim.” Daniel means — “God is my Judge,” Mishael means, “Who is like God?” The names of the other two, Hananiah and Azariah, both contain a shortened form of the name Jehovah. Hananiah means “Jehovah is Gracious” while Azariah means “Jehovah is my Helper”. The very names of these men were reminders of their heritage and a challenge for them to remain faithful to the Lord. But now, they were deported into a strange, pagan land, and their names were changed. Add insult to injury because their new names contain a reference to one of the false gods of the ancient Babylonians:  Marduk, Aku and Nego. Daniel wan renamed Belteshazzar, which means “Guard my life,”  it was a prayer to Marduk, one of the Babylonian pagan gods.  By changing their Jewish names to Babylonian names, this was a way of saying that these four, young men who had been servants of the Jewish God, were now servants and worshipers of the gods of the pagan pantheon. How would you like to be renamed by a pagan system, after a false god?

I want to emphasize something here, and it’s a good “SO WHAT?” for us. The change of their names accomplished nothing.
You see, King Nebuchadnezzar had changed the men’s names, but he could not change their hearts. What does this mean for you and me? No matter we are going through, no matter how tough life is–no one can change your heart without your permission. Remember this.

The four men remained faithful to the true God of Israel.

Will we be faithful to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? When life gets burning hot, will I remain faithful? (Write that down.  Think about that!)

As we begin this story, I want you to place yourself into what’s going on. We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Babylon. Nothing is the same, nothing is familiar anymore; they have even changed our names to honor their gods. 

Can you relate? A year ago, things were pretty normal but not for long. Covid 19 hit us and so did masks, gloves and the rush on paper products! Life has not been normal. Life has been anything but normal this past year. And, yet, can we be more like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Can we remain faithful to God? 

GOD WITH US!

GOD WITH ME.

When Daniel and his three friends were taken captive to a foreign land and given different names did God make a mistake?  Did God forsake them?  As we are all faced with a world-wide pandemic, does God not know what is happening?  Has God forgotten us?

Has your faith begun to fail?  Go ahead and read this story. Put yourself right there into Babylon. And answer this question:

To whom or to what do I bow?

As you read, remember this:  These young men did not sit down and rationalize our their options.  They did not justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. These young men simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

So What?
I am reminded of the great theologian and church reformer, Martin Luther, when he was on trial at the Diet of Worms. Luther was told by his authorities to recant his convictions, and to recant the 95 questions on the door of the Wittenberg Castle. Listen to Luther’s reply as his very life was at stake: “Here I stand.  I can do no other. May God help me.”

I have a long homework project for you to do this week. Read the following question. Pray about it. Think about it. You can even discuss it with people you love. Here’s the question:

What are my convictions? (Conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion.)

And now a final “So What?” homework question: which of the above convictions are worth the fiery furnace to you?

“HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER. May God be with me.” Isn’t it just another way of saying, “GOD WITH US” or “GOD WITH ME”? 

As I close, the past few weeks have been pretty intense for my wife and I. Caring for Dad in our home has many challenges. Remember the recent MOHS surgery I had on my nose and shoulder? I’m sensitive to the stitches, the gauze, the tape that were used. I have four, dissolvable stitches in my shoulder and it’s going to take 3-4 months for them to dissolve. My entire left side of my shoulder is aflame. I’ve not been taken into captivity by any means but let’s just say, “I get Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And, I’m not bowing down to anything or anyone except the one, true God.” 

Are you there? Are you with me? 

Next week we conclude the fiery furnace and move into the lions’ den. Oh, man! I can hardly wait!

Spoiler alert for next week: there’s a fourth man in the fire and there’s another in your fiery furnace, too.

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 

Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Join us for worship on Sunday at 10am Pacific.  The link for the live interactive worship is:

theseedchristianfellowship.online.church

if you miss the 10am worship on Sunday you can always go to our YouTube channel and watch the complete worship service or just the children’s message for your children or the weekly sermon.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed-Sowers,
It is my prayer that as each one of us walks through this world-wide pandemic that we will be the salt and the light of Christ to our dark world.  May we keep our eyes on Jesus and may His light shine through us.

Last week we looked at being the salt of the earth.  This week let’s take a few minutes and reflect on the call to be the light of the world.  We need to light our lamps of love, joy, faith, mercy, peace and grace into the world we live in.

Last week I challenged you to consider the kind of foundation you are building upon.  Are you a wise-builder or a foolish-builder?  Are you going to build on sinking sand or on the ROCK of Christ?  As I have been reading this week, I came across this great illustration about building on the ROCK and letting your light shine:

Eleven miles off the east coast of Scotland, in the North Sea, stands the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It has endured the ferocious onslaught of the North Sea’s violent storms since 1811. It rests upon less than one acre of solid rock. The small reef is covered by seawater 20 hours of every 24. The builder of the lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, and his band of 65 skilled artisans, had only four hours each day to chink away the stone and gouge a foundation in the rock. As a result of this painstakingly patient work, the 115-foot-tall lighthouse is still in use today–200 years later. There are usually great costs in digging a deep, Christ-like foundation.  Do it anyway. Your legacy will outlast you if you do!

In 1972, a young Egyptian businessman named Farahat lost an $11,000 watch. He was stunned when a garbage man dressed in filthy rags found it and returned it to him. Farahat asked him why he didn’t just keep the watch. The garbage man said, “My Christ told me to be honest until death.” Farahat later told a reporter: “I didn’t know Christ at the time, but I told the garbage man that I saw Christ in him. I told him, ‘Because of what you have done and your great example, I will worship the Christ you are worshiping.'”  Farahat studied the Bible and grew in his faith. Two years later he visited the garbage man’s village outside Cairo, where between 15,000 and 30,000 people were living in poverty and squalor. There was no electricity or running water. Alcohol, drugs, and gambling were pervasive. Men, women, and children sifted through huge mountains of garbage, looking for something of value that could be sold for cash or traded for food. Farahat found himself reflecting on the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He also remembered the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:13, “We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things.” It was soon thereafter that Farahat and his wife began ministering to people’s spiritual and material needs. They preached the gospel throughout Egypt, and thousands of people turned to Christ.  In 1978, Farahat was ordained by the Coptic Orthodox Church and became known as Father Sama’an. Now, about 10,000 believers meet in a large cave outside the garbage village. It is the largest church of believers in the Middle East. In May of 2005, a day of prayer was held for Muslims to turn to Christ. More than 20,000 Arab Christians gathered. The event was also broadcast on a Christian satellite TV network, where millions were watching. All this, because one garbage man chose to humbly return a watch that would have made him the richest man in town.[i]

Wherever you are, whoever you are–you can be the light of Christ. Build deeply into the foundation of Christ. Let Christ’s light shine in you. Go love others.

SO WHAT?
Jesus is on the mountaintop teaching us how to improve our lives.

·         You are the salt of the earth. 

·         You are the light of the world.

Do you come to church to worship the living God?  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to RUB the love of God into your heart each Sunday?  Do we let our daily devotionals and weekly Bible Studies season our lives so that we are ready to flavor our part of the world—our home, work places, schools, neighborhoods and church?  If we had an ingredient list—how far down would the Jesus-factor be?

Jesus was onto something at the mountaintop.  From His viewpoint, he saw a decaying world.  What about you? Will you do whatever it takes to be the salt and light of your world? Remember Robert Stevenson only had four hours each day to gouge a foundation into solid rock but that lighthouse is still in use–200 years later.

The work you do in your lifetime has the opportunity to outlive you. 

When the waves of the world are crashing all around you, you can stand safely and securely in the midst of the storm.  Why? Because you have built your foundation upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 5: And the light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it. The BELL ROCK lighthouse has safely guided the seas for over 200 years. Why? Its foundation is embedded deeply into the rock it rests upon. May the same be said of you and me.

See you Sunday …

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Dear Seed-Sowers,
I hope and pray that you are all well, safe, healthy and growing in grace. I have been rereading Matthew 5 this week and reflecting on Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Wow!  There is so much meat in chapters 5-7 of Matthew. (Perhaps a challenge for you to read these chapters for a week?) In the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are to be poor in spirit, called to be merciful and meek, called to hunger and thirst for righteousness in order that we may be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”  In essence, what Jesus is telling the people gathered on that mountainside is that they are to not to just sit around listening about HOW to be a Christian, they are to go out and BE a Christian.  Jesus clearly states the purpose of the Christian life — to be salt and light in our world!

SO WHAT? ABOUT “salt”?

SALT: PRESERVATIVE and FLAVOR
In the days of Jesus, and for many centuries thereafter, salt was the most common preservative used.  There were no refrigerators, no deep-freezers in ancient times. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, particularly meat.  When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot” Jesus was telling His disciples that they were called to be the preserving agents to a decaying world.

The simple principle is that you and I are called to be a preserving force in the world–wherever we are called to live, work, and play.

Think of it this way — salt that never leaves the shelf will do no good in preserving anything.  To be effective, the salt had to be rubbed into the meat.  Have you gone into the grocery store and looked at all of the “rubs” they have for seasoning these days?  In the same way, we  must allow God to use us as flavorful seasoning in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and churches.  A small amount of love and kindness goes a long way in making our world a better place.

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I went to buy juice, and I came across an insight on flavoring. I was holding a bottle of Blueberry Pomegranate Juice.  There was a picture of a ripe pomegranate spilling its exotic, glistening seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries.  I read the ingredient list: “Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate.” Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth and seventh in a list of nine ingredients. By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. Meaning a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down the list. According to the jug in my hand, it contained mostly water—a few other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color. In the bottom corner of the front label in small, easy-to-miss type, were the tell-tale words: “Flavored juice blend with other natural ingredients.” The enticing picture and clever labeling were decoys to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product convincingly disguised to look like something it wasn’t. I put the juice back on the shelf.  I chose the juice that was more costly—because it had more of what I was looking for.

SO WHAT? THINK ABOUT THIS:  What if we had an ingredients list printed on us?

Would Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would He be? Would our “label” accurately represent our contents? Or would we falsely project a misleading outward-appearance that cleverly masked our diluted ingredients? This made me think, our outside packaging may look convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing but what if someone came looking specifically for Jesus and found something else?

More than a hundred years ago, the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reproached a group of Christians.  Nietzsche said: “Yuck, you make me sick!” When their spokesman asked why, he answered, “because you redeemed don’t look like you are redeemed.  You are as fearful, guilt-ridden, anxious confused, and adrift in an alien environment as I am.  I am allowed.  I don’t believe. I have nothing to hope for.  But you people claim you have a Savior.  Why don’t you look like you are saved?”[ii]

Friends, it is our calling as Christians to be the salt of the earth.  We are called to bring love, joy, peace, hope, mercy, kindness, and grace into our families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, churches and wherever we go. I think about the people who are serving us in the drive up. I can’t tell you how many times I pull away without something I ordered and paid for. The other day my 89 year old father-in-law taught me a life lesson. The drive up forgot his honey mustard sauce for his chicken nuggets.  We were going to go park and take in the majestic beauty of the San Gabriel mountains while we ate our drive through. No honey mustard? Dad said to me, “It’s okay. The mountains are still beautiful.”

I’m trying to say, be the light and the salt of Christ in a world that’s missing the honey mustard sauce!

As you read the living word of God, I’m praying it becomes a great seasoning salt that’s rubbed deeply into your being.  I’m praying that you are conformed, and transformed by what you read in your Bible. It’s a new year–pick a book (there are 66 of them) and read a paragraph, or a chapter a day. This week: be the salt of the earth. Lord knows, the world needs us!

See you Sunday.
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

At The Seed it is our hope and prayer that you come to know the love of God, grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and go into our world sowing seeds of faith. The SEED wants you to SOW SEEDS OF FAITH in your world.

Know God’s Love!
Grow in Christ’s Grace!
Go in Power of the Holy Spirit!

We sit at the brink of a New Year. The canvas of this year is mostly clean (except for a few weeks). Can we allow the Holy Spirit to help us go in His power to sow seeds of faith, hope, mercy, grace, and love? And, if so, what does that plan look like for each one of us?

January 17th marks the 23rd year of my ordination into full-time ministry. My goal from the very beginning was to serve our mighty God in full-time ministry for at least 25 years. I went into seminary at the ripe, old age of 40 (like Moses)! When people would ask me why I made that career change, I would answer that I had 25 good years left in me! You see, I was a Good Year tire dealer, and the choice was to dream God’s dream or play it safe and sell tires for the next 25 years. I’m so glad God placed that giant-sized burden of ministry onto my shoulders way back in 1994. My prayer as I begin my 24th year of ordained ministry serving in a church is that God will lead me all the way. I want to finish these 25 years of ministry STRONG! I want to press on and reach the goal. I don’t want to slow down and coast past the finish line. God gave me a plan and I’m in it to win it. How about you? Perhaps you are 40 years old and you are being called into a brand, new career, too? My only advice for you:  read your living WORD, pray and obey.

And so, for the 23rd year I have been doing just that. I’ve been opening my Living Word, praying and seeking God’s heart on what my 2021 preaching schedule could look like. I’m always open to the Holy Spirit changing my plan but, as of yet, God’s plans have worked! And so, at the end of December, I sat down and spent time seeking God’s voice for The Seed.  “What do you want me to preach on in 2021?” To be boldly honest with you, I am extremely excited to begin a New Year and a new sermon series: “God With Us.”

All during Advent, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart, “Dave, with all the world has been going through, stop and reflect on the three little words of Christmas:  “God With Us.”   Isaiah* 7:14 — “Therefore the Lord himself will give you (this pronoun is plural it include you and me) a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God With Us.)  *Just a quick invitation — I am teaching the book of Isaiah on Wednesday nights in our Get-A-Life group.  We are doing this study by ZOOM at the present time.  If you would like to join our study, send me an email at pastordave@theseedchristianfellowship.com and I will send you a ZOOM invite. (We begin at 6:30 pm Pacific Time; believe it or not, we have people from the east coast who join us.)

This Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel showed up to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  Listen to how Matthew records this in Matthew 1:20-23:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23

Did you hear those three, little words?  GOD WITH US!   Three little words with big meaning. All wrapped up in one little Hebrew name, “Immanuel.”

Maybe a good “so what?” question before we dig into our message for this week is:

Do you believe those three little words — GOD WITH US? How do these three, little words affect your life? Is God with you?

Like everyone else I have been waiting and watching all that has been happening in our world in this world-wide pandemic and again I am watching with all the political upheaval. These days are tumultuous, turbulent, trying and terribly frightening.  There seems to be confusion in the chaos. Friends and family members are getting sick and some are dying.  Businesses are closed, schools are shutdown and moved to online, Even our churches closed and moved online. Relationships have been limited and stretched to the limits. Families have been isolated and quarantined from one another.  Many people are struggling with depression, doubt and despair.  Some are asking — “How Long — Lord?”   Fear, frustration and anxiety and anger seem to be the emotions that are being expressed by so many.

Do you believe those three, little words — GOD WITH US?

How do these three, little words affect and impact your life?

There is a story told of two missionaries who were captured and imprisoned in the same cell but forbidden to speak to each other. Christmas came. One of the missionaries, shivering and silent, sat on the floor covered with hay. As he was playing with bits of hay around him, he thought that he discovered a silent way of communicating with his friend. He spelled out the word Immanuel. As soon as his friend saw the word, immediately he lit up with joy. They were captives, but they both believed that God was with them and that ultimate triumph would be theirs.[i]

Listen, if you are all alone: the SEED has spelled out for you in the straw of life: IMMANUEL! GOD IS WITH YOU!

So What?
Over the next few months as we make our way to Easter, I am going to share some of the famous stories in the Bible, stories where God showed up despite dark, dismal days.  God was with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in a fiery furnace. God was with Daniel in a lion’s den.  God was with David when
he faced a giant named Goliath. God was with Elijah when he was confronted by hundreds of prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. God was Elisha when he raised the dead son of the Shunamite and filled the widow’s olive oil jar to overflowing. God was with Jonah in the belly of the big fish. God was with Samson, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the prophets. The entire bible is filled with stories that beat the odds.  God has not left us! GOD IS WITH US!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

This is my prayer for us as we journey through 2021.  No matter what, I want you to know that GOD IS WITH YOU. He’s with you whether you have small children and are losing your mind being encapsulated! God is with you whether you are sick and need medical care. God is with you even if you are all alone and feel as though you are dying of loneliness.

GOD WITH US.  SAY IT OUT LOUD. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS HARD: GOD WITH ME. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS GOOD: GOD WITH ME. PRAY IT OVER YOUR FAMILY WHEN THEY ARE STRUGGLING:  GOD WITH US.

Every day my wife and I care for Dad in our home. Andy celebrates his 89th birthday on MLK Jr Day! He’s ordered a prime rib, corn and baked potato dinner cooked at home. Jac’s been busy getting cards from people who know Dad. We will hang up the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign and put 89 on top of his chocolate cake. You see, Dad suffers from end stage Alzheimer’s and the past few months have take a toll on his mind and body but not his spirit. Every night as Dad and I head down the hallway to his bedroom, Dad tells me, “Talk about forgiveness, Dave. No baggage.” Dad is aware that I preach on Sundays and record messages for the radio and you tube. After 23 years of ordained ministry, I pray I never forget: GOD WITH US. I AM FORGIVEN. NO BAGGAGE. Amen.

It’s not about our power, it’s about GOD’S POWER at work IN us. There.  Do you see it?

GOD WITH US. Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Matthew 2:10-12

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

Happy Epiphany! The twelve days of Christmas have come to end.  January 6th (of every year) is the day the church celebrates Epiphany. Epiphany means “manifestation”. Manifestation means an event, action or object that clearly shows or embodies a theory or abstract idea!  Epiphany is the day celebrated as the manifestation of Jesus to Gentiles with the visit of the wise men from the East. I encourage you to read the story of the wise men and their visit to see the Christ-child born King.  You can find the story in Matthew 2:1-12.

The story of the wise men visiting the Christ child is an intriguing one. These magi waited, they watched and when they saw the promise of the star fulfilled, they went and worshiped. There’s a group of poignant words for today: waited, watched, went, worshiped.

We have been waiting for this worldwide pandemic to be under control.  We have been waiting for our families to come back together.  We have been waiting to go back to school in person.  We have been waiting for our churches to open so that we can come and worship together in community.

What have you been waiting for?  What are you watching for?  With the lockdown and quarantine, I am sure that many have had the opportunity to watch a lot of TV programs. Some of us had the opportunity to go outside in December that watch Saturn and Jupitar align and give us a bright star.  Nasa called it the Christmas Star, or the Star of Bethlehem.  The next time these two planets will align like they just did will be in 800 years. I wonder if this is the star that the wise men were watching for? But the real question for us is: what are you watching for?

Can you comprehend this story of the wise men from east?   This traveling caravan of wise-men and servants began a long trip to Israel simply because a particular star was in the sky, alerting them to the birth of the King of the Jews.  They traveled for several months before they finally met the Christ-child.

I believe that this story is more than a story to entertain us, it is a story to teach us about our own personal response to Christ, “the child born the king of the Jews.”

Maybe a good little “so what” for each one of us — “what is our response to the child born King of the Jews?’

So what do the wise men have to do with us today?  What can we learn from them?  I believe that. at times, we are a lot like King Herod—uncomfortable. King Herod was uncomfortable … “he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”   The verb used for “frightened” in the original Greek is very descriptive and has been translated into English with many different words like “disturbed, terrified, and frightened.”  The verb is in the active voice and it literally means “to shake, stir up, trouble or agitate.” the Bible says that he was terrified of a new king, even if that king was a baby.

I also believe that, at times, we are a lot like the chief priests and the teachers of the law–unwilling. They new that the Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem.  Yet, they were unwilling to go five miles.

My hope and prayer is that we will learn to overcome our uncomfortableness, unwillingness and become unleashed in our faith as the Magi were.  

Unleashed with the news of the birth of the Christ child.

Unleashed like the wise men to bow down and worship the King with the gifts of our lives.

We sit at the brink of a new year.  The slate is clean. The canvas of 2021 is blank.  Are we going to be uncomfortable, unwilling or unleashed in 2021?

Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revivalist, sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. He added to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions. Edwards put at the top of his list: “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions.…Remember to read over these resolutions once a week.”[i]

Edwards did not casually make New Year’s resolutions with an expectation of eventually breaking them.  Each week he did a self-check. He regularly summed up how he was doing and sought God’s help in the process.

What are our resolutions for this New Year?  What are we going to write on our slate for 2021?  What are we going to paint onto the canvas of our life in 2021?  What are our resolutions for our church?    What are our resolutions for children’s ministry, youth ministry and adult small-group ministries for 2021? Where is God calling us into fellowship and mission work? You all know we have supported Children Everywhere for 20 years. In 2010 we began having NOISY SUNDAY and have just passed the milemarker of raising $25,000 for our rescue homes in Zambia. Today our leadership board voted to begin investing in a new ministry from India. How in the world did God lead us here? Byron was walking by the house with his dog. Jac and I were outside and my wife felt this overwhelming impression that this man was a special person in God’s eyes.  “Hey, what do you do for a living?” Not your average thing to say to people walking their dog by our house. I can honestly say she’s never asked that another person in her entire 66 years of life. Byron stopped and we pursued into a deep and meaningful conversation about ministry. A month later, our board is on board to support women in India. Is this a fulfillment of a life of learning to WAIT, WATCH, WENT, WORSHIP? Should I mention my wife’s word of intention for 2020 was WAIT?

When I became a Christian my mentor and pastor asked me to pick a life verse.  The first verse that I memorized was Proverbs 3:5-6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

But the verse I chose as my life verse was from Paul’s letter to Philippians … Philippians 3:10-11:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul continues to encourage the church in Philippi while he sits in prison

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul the Apostle wrote in his letter to the Philippians that he wanted to forget what was behind and he wanted to strain for what was ahead.  He wrote that he wanted to win the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus.

My “so what” question for you today as you make your New Year resolutions: “are you in it to win it?”

Are you going to forget what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead?

As the wise-men waited, watched, went, and worshiped–can you answer this question: Am I ready to wait, watch and worship?  Am I in it to WIN it?

Whatever our personal resolutions may be, whatever our resolutions for our church may be, I pray we all seek God’s help, regularly check up on how we are doing, and I pray we become unleashed to be in it to win it — to finish the race that is set before us.

My prayer for each and every one of us is that we all would be unleashed!  Unleashed to seek Christ!  Unleashed to ask for directions!  Unleashed to worship in spirit and truth!

Let us make one resolution as God’s family:  Let us resolve to simply follow like the wise men and then  return home a different way!  Let us offer God our blank slates for our lives in 2021.  Let us agree with Jonathan Edwards, “Being sensible that we are unable to do anything without God’s help, we humbly entreat God’s grace to complete everything that Christ has planned for us.”  Hey, it could be as honest and simple as asking the dogwalker, “What do you do for a living?” Paul preached Christ–and strained for what was ahead. Who knows what 2021 holds for each of us? GOD. GOD KNOWS. Wait. Watch, Went. Worship.

Let us pray — God of creation, your love is so amazing.   Help us not to be like Herod—uncomfortable because we only have enough room for one king–me, myself and I.  Help us not to be like the chief priests and teachers of the law—unwilling to let the news of Christ rule in our hearts but let us become unleashed like the wise men.  Foolish to abandon ourselves fully by following the newborn King!  May we all be unleashed to seek you, to follow you, and to find you.  May we be unleashed to worship You in spirit and in truth!  Give us dreams and visions of Your great love and lead us by Your guiding light.  We pray we will wait, watch, and worship.  We pray our gifts will be a gift fit for the newborn, CHRIST CHILD King!  Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love.
Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701  

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” Isaiah 42:9

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” I Peter 1:3-5

Dear Faithful Friends, Saintly Seed-Sowers, and Courageous Covid-Warriors,

Above are a few passages of Scriptures that I turn to as I prepare for each New Year.  I think of all we each had to walk through in 2020.  Who would have imagined that a world-wide pandemic would shut down our lives on a dime? I also like to reflect on the new year and on the “new things” that God will do in my life, your life, and in the lives of all of us during this new year: 2021!

I love the passage from Revelation: Write them down for they are “trustworthy and true.”  What powerful words to reflect on!  What words are your hearing? What words are you reading? What words are you thinking on?

Did you know that the word “new” is used 192 times in the Bible? The word “new” is used with the words — “new moon, new wine, new harvest, new king, new treasure, new tomb (Jesus’ burial), new command (love), new life, new song, and new name” to name just a few.  The Hebrew word for ‘new” is “חָדָשׁ chadash” and it means “new, fresh, to reveal.”  The Greek word for “new” is a combination of two words — kainos (καινος), neos (νεος).

As we sit on the brink of this NEW Year, think about this. The slate is clean for this New Year.  The pages of your life in 2021 have yet to be written. I read this devotional thought from Robert G Lee:

“If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, that carried no balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and finally every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. what would you do?

Draw out every cent—of course!

Well, you have such a bank, and its’ name is “Time.” Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off—as lost—whatever of this you failed to invest into good purpose. It carries no balances. It allows no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day the bank named “Time” opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.”

One gift that COVID-19 has given me is the gift of time. My wife and I are caring for her elderly father-in-law with severe Alzheimer’s. We are aware that each day contains 86,400 seconds and, yet we are blessed to be able to keep dad at home. Have you thought about what gifts this pandemic has blessed you with?

This year I am hoping to end my day with this question: Did I spend my 86,400 seconds wisely?

Here is to a very Happy New Year!

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His everlasting and His mercy that is NEW every morning.

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”  Luke 1:46-47

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers and Christmas Centered Christ followers,
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON! Don’t ever forget that. No pandemic can shut down the real reason for the Christmas season. All over the world the faithful are preparing their hearts, homes and holidays for the arrival of the KING OF KINGS. I pray you are almost ready!

It is my prayer that during this 2020 “covid” Advent season, you are able to see, feel, taste, sense, and hear the Advent hope, love, joy and peace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Before we begin our journey this week, let me first ask you a question. 

What is your attitude about joy?

This may sound like a silly question — I think all of us would rather be happy than sad.   I believe that we would rather be up than down.  I would go a step further and say most of us prefer to be around others who are joyful, happy, and positive.

Happiness and joy are not the same thing.  Happiness depends on a happening, something from the outside while joy comes from within ourselves.

I love the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls after 70 years of desolation and destruction. Wow!  We have only had 10 months of isolation and lockdown. Nehemiah wants to encourage the people to continue to keep rebuilding.  They are surrounded by their enemies Sanballat, Tobias, Gresham.  Their walls are broken down.  Their spirits are down and Nehemiah shouts out these wonderful, powerful, life-changing words found in Nehemiah 8:10:

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

DO NOT GRIEVE … FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH.

These are words that we can take to heart as we continue to walk through this world-wide pandemic.

The so what comes early this today — So What is your attitude about joy?
Do you take the time to cultivate joy in your life? 
Do you see joy as an important foundation for your life, and if so, where does this joy come from?
Who or what is the source of your JOY?

Joy!  You may be saying, “How can there be joy in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. How can there be joy when I am locked down in my house?  How can there be joy when all I do is spend my time on my computer screen for class or work. Joy, are you kidding me?  You haven’t seen my TO DO list, have you?
I still have a week of school left—bah humbug!”  I bet you know people like old Ebenezer  Scrooge, who lived most of his life with a “bah humbug” attitude.

The trouble with waiting for JOY to happen is that we will always have more work to do.

The good news is that we CAN increase the joy in our lives, regardless of our circumstances, by taking and making the time to celebrate.

Let me repeat that statement!

We can increase our joy by taking and making the time to celebrate!

This is my 22^nd Christmas in ordained pastoral ministry and 40^th Christmas in ministry total (18 years as youth pastor).  It never ceases to amaze me how stressful and depressing the holidays can be for so many people—especially Christians—and all the while we have the answer right in front of us, lying in a manger. The Christ Child:  Immanuel, GOD WITH US. 

Sometimes at Christmas we can find ourselves nursing wounds from the past or wallowing in self-pity over what we do not have and over the bad choices we have made.  We find ourselves remembering harsh words, sad disappointments, and difficult interactions from our past.    We think we will never be free and, like Scrooge, we want to “extinguish” the truth.  “Extinguish the pain” is often our first response to wounds and regrets, but there is a better way.

Jesus was born in a stable — a small, cramped, congested, messy place! A newborn baby was out-of-place among the dusty animals, the musty straw and all the usual smells, sights and sounds found in a stable.  But this mess is our holy message of Christmas!  There is no stable, no place in our world or in our lives or hearts that is too broken, too poor, too remote, too rejected, too outcast or too messy that God cannot be found and formed in us—Immanuel, God with us.

I encourage you to take and read the Gospel stories in Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1 & 2.

The Gospel — Good News story in Luke 1:39-56 gives us the right focus for us today.  Here we have Elizabeth, beyond childbearing age but now six-months pregnant with her first child, a son, John. {He will become John the Baptist.}  Elizabeth is visited by her relative, Mary.  Mary was young, poor, female…unmarried, and pregnant.  I love the stories in the Bible.  Not because the people are the cream of the crop, the WHO’S WHO of WHOVILLE; no!  I love the stories because they are people just like you and me.  Both of these woman had pain in their lives:  Elizabeth had suffered for many years—probably 50 years—because she could not bear a child.  Her childlessness was viewed by others as a curse from God.  Elizabeth felt humiliated and hopeless for years—and  what happens? She is old AND pregnant!  Mary decides to go visit Elizabeth after Gabriel has appeared to her and shared the good news that she will bear a son named Jesus.  Mary is the opposite of Elizabeth.  She is not old and pregnant.  Mary is young, unmarried, and pregnant; yet Mary knows that this baby is God’s own son.

As Mary enters Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth’s baby LEAPS within her and Elizabeth gives a glad cry She exclaims that Mary is blessed above all women!  You know, these two could have had quite a pity party…but they did not.  In verse 46 Mary responds to Elizabeth by saying, “My soul GLORIFIES the Lord.”  Do you know that another word for GLORIFY is MAGNIFY?  Magnify:  to make something greater/to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect/to enlarge in fact or appearance.  What Mary is saying is, “You know, this is not the greatest timing for me, either.  We can focus on the negative or…we can focus on the good.   You know what? We may not understand this but my soul is going to magnify the Lord.”

Elizabeth and Mary chose to cultivate joy.  Instead of magnifying their worries and woes, they chose to magnify the Lord.

Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE states it this way: “I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” Luke 1:46-47 

Mary knew God as a God of power and as a God who was concerned for her.  Mary knew God as the ONE who cares for the humble and hungry.   Mary knew her Old Testament Scriptures.  There are at least fifteen Old Testament quotes or allusions in her song of praise.  Because Mary and Elizabeth had believed the Word of God, they each experienced the power of God.  The result of their magnifying the Lord is an outpouring of JOY.  What a lesson for each of us!

Each one of us has a choice to make.  We can focus on what we do not have, or we can focus on what we do have.  

SO WHAT?
We are turning the corner to Christmas!  What a story of JOY we have been given in Elizabeth and Mary!  Christ is the holder of our past, present and future.

The message of Christmas is this:  mess or no mess…IMMANUEL—GOD WITH US—is arriving in few days!  Yes, there’s tons yet to do.  Yes, we may not get it all done.  Yes, our painful pasts may be crying out but we have a choice to make:  will we magnify the pain or we will magnify the Lord?

Here’s our series so far:

Week 1:  HOPE:  Hope in harrowing times! We need to remember to no be afraid.  God hears your prayers.
Week 2:  LOVE:  God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you. Remember Immanuel — God is with us!
Week 3:  JOY:  We all have a choice to make!  Choose joy and allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength.

Oh, let us MAGNIFY the LORD this week as we PREPARE for CHRISTMAS DAY!  I want us to burst with GOD NEWS and to DANCE the SONG of our SAVIOR GOD!

Let us pray:  God, only You know the depth and width of our yesterdays.  Only you can help us to heal.  These last ten days of Advent help us to prepare our hearts and our homes for the celebration of Your one and only Son’s arrival.  Unchain our hearts and help us to BUILD relationships with love.  This week we ask for JOY!  Help us to magnify the good and to sing, “Joy to the world!  The Lord is come:  let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room—and heaven and nature SING!”  We want to be full of the GOD NEWS…so that we dance all week long with JOY!  Amen. 

I have a great story to share with you. After last Sunday’s message, my wife said, “I want God to bring JOY to me this week in a way that makes me dance and sing.” I will make this short. Our daughter is a Special Education teacher and she just recently took on a home teach student with medical issues that keep her homebound. I can’t give you much information but I can tell you this young student is on dialysis and this young student heads up a CHRISTMAS TOY DRIVE for the children on dialysis at Loma Linda hospital. There’s actually ten different SEEDS OF FAITH in this one story but let me just say this: my wife posted a need on her facebook page, 7 people responded. Today that young student delivered a TRUCK LOAD of toys to 3 dialysis clinics!

My wife’s words, “THIS. THIS IS CHRISTMAS!”

We are singing and dancing here on GALA Avenue. That’s my prayer for you: THAT YOU FIND CHRIST IN THIS COVID CHRISTMAS because when we choose to magnify GOD…no one can steal our JOY!

Jesus. Others. You.

Merry Christmas!

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do i,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,

It is only a few weeks before we celebrate the birth of Christ.  Christmas!  Are you ready?  Are you ready for Christ to be born anew in your heart and home and in your holidays?

Last week, we started our Advent series. Advent means “coming” and, for sure, whether or not we are ready, Christmas is coming! There are four Sundays in Advent. Today is our second Advent message. We have two Sundays left in order for us to focus on preparing our hearts, our homes, our holidays for the celebration of Christmas! Our first Advent Sunday we heard about “Hope in Harrowing Times”. We talked about Zechariah and Elizabeth who had waited many years to have a child.  They were old, their hopes had been dashed and delayed. We learned that the Christmas story occurs after a 400-year silence from God; from Malachi to Matthew–silence! The people of Israel had been hoping and waiting for their Messiah for 400 years.  Their hope had been long delayed.  They are now being ruled in their own homeland by a Roman Emperor. Can we imagine that scenario?

Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the people of Israel, all understood having hope in harrowing times. Their story reminds me of our story today. I always ask you to put yourself into the story of the Bible. With COVID-19, I think we can all understand trying to keep our hope alive.

What about you?  Have you ever had your hope delayed? Have you ever had a day or two where you have lost hope in these harrowing times of Covid-19?  I know I have; my hope has been stretched to the limits this year with the death of mother-in-law, my brother, and my dad.  And besides all of this grief, there is just the plain grief of 2020/COVID-19. Church isn’t what it used to be. Everything had changed.  I think we are all aware of the sorrow we feel from of the loss of what we called “normal”.  I am sure we can all relate to having our hope delayed. I pray every day that we can find hope in these harrowing times. Thank God for Advent!

Thank God! We have lit the candle of HOPE—Heaven’s One Promise: Emmanuel.

Today we are going to study Joseph. We are going to see how God’s love endured for Joseph. Do you know that the definition of “endured” means “to suffer something painful or difficult patiently”?

Do you believe that God’s love will endure for you in this time of Covid-19 shutdown, lockdowns, quarantines, loss, illness and even death? Will your love endure as you suffer through this painful and difficult time?

Advent hope brings God’s enduring love; a love that will help us to suffer through this painful season, this difficult time, patiently. There is no other way. We have all been placed into this Covid-19 season and, with God’s love, we will endure. We may suffer but we will endure.

Think about Joseph for a minute!  What was going on in his mind?  He was at his father’s house preparing a place for his lovely bride.  He had been working, planning, and dreaming about his future and the life he and Mary would have together. What were his hopes and dreams? Was he thinking about how many children they would have?  Would they be boys, or would he have girls? Was he hoping to build up his father’s business so that they could have camels and lots of sheep?  Was Joseph dreaming of taking his family on yearly vacations to the Sea of Galilee?  Was he hoping and dreaming of bringing the family down to Jerusalem for the yearly festival of Passover?

Joseph was a happy man at this point in his life.  He was going to be married and his life was looking good. And then one day, it all came crashing down.  Mary was pregnant!  How could this be?  What would people think?  What would people say?  His beautiful bride-to-be was pregnant?  Mary told him about her encounter with the angel Gabriel and what the angel said: “Mary, you are highly favored.  The Lord is with you, Mary.  Do not be afraid—you are going to be with child!  Name him Jesus.  He will be called the Son of the Most High!  Nothing is impossible with God, Mary!” (Luke 1:30-32)

Does Joseph believe Mary?  No! His dreams were LOST!  His dreams are shattered!  His hopes are dashed! What happens next in this story?  Have you entered this story? Are you Joseph? Mary? The angel? Are you the parent of Joseph? Or the nosy next-door-neighbor?

The word states that Joseph was a “righteous man”; instead of making Mary’s pregnancy public and shaming her, Joseph decides “to dismiss her”.  The Greek word Matthew uses is ἀπολύω [apoluo /ap·ol·oo·o/] — “to set aside, to put away.” Joseph sets Mary aside.

Dismissing is the common word used in their culture for divorce.  Joseph did not want to disgrace Mary.  She could be stoned for being pregnant and not married.  Joseph loved Mary deeply, but he did not believe Mary’s story. He decided to set her aside, put her away, and dismiss her. And by now, he’s exhausted and goes to sleep!

Lost Dreams!  Dreams shattered.  Have you ever been there?  Are you there now?

So What?
How many of us feel like Joseph? Enter 2020. We started out our year believing that 2020 was going to be a year of perfect vision, you know—20/20! And…maybe, just maybe, 2020 is actually, in all reality, truly becoming a year of perfect vision to each one of us. I do not know about you, but I know that my focus is on my faith, my focus on God is the only thing that is helping me to patiently endure this season. Money cannot buy me out of this situation. The law cannot help me. Position or power—they cannot get me out of this, either. I have one thing that has come into perfect vision for me: my relationship with God.

Wonder if this is where Joseph found himself?

Have your dreams been lost?  Have your dreams been shattered? Maybe you have lost your dream home.  Maybe you cannot get ahead and stay ahead.  Maybe your health is an area of concern, especially right now with this pandemic. Maybe you have been dealing with depression or anxiety.  Maybe there is a relationship in your life that has been broken and you wonder if it will ever be repaired. Maybe your dream job has been eliminated and you are the one out looking for employment in a covid world.  We are living in a time when dreams are being shattered right and left—and if it is not your turn on the dream smasher/chopping block—then I bet that you know someone whose dreams are being smashed against the rocky cliffs of the storms of life as we share this devotional.

Joe does what any man would do. He decides a nap is in order.

Can you imagine what happened when Joseph woke up from his nap? Joseph had a dream. He heard from the Lord through an angel in a dream.  Did you notice what Joseph did in verse 24 of Matthew 1?

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  He had no union with her until she gave birth to a son…and Joseph named the baby– JESUS.

When Joseph woke up from his “pull the covers over my head and sleep the world away” dream…he got up and did EXACTLY what the angel told him to do.  He did not talk it over with his Dad, he did not ask his best friend for advice, he did not go to work and take a poll on what everyone thought he should do. He obeyed.  He went and took Mary as his wife.  Remember the home he built?  He went and got Mary and brought her new home to live with him. He did not care what others would say when they found out she was pregnant.  Joseph had been visited by an angel in a dream. “Mary, I love you. Come home with me.  Be my wife. I get it. An angel visited me, too. We’re naming our son Jesus!”   And…just like that Joseph was given a new dream and a new promise—”the baby is from the Holy Spirit and you shall name him Jesus and they shall call him EMMANUEL—God with us!”

The “so what” for us today is the exact same “so what” as it was for Joseph:

(Put your name here), it is going to be okay.  I know this is not what you had planned.  I know you do not have a clue why this is happening…but the baby’s name is Jesus — He will save you from your sins.  You shall call him EMMANUEL—GOD IS WITH YOU.  

If your dreams have been shattered or drastically altered, I want you to hear what the angel said, “EMMANUEL, GOD IS WITH YOU.  Do not be afraid—GOD IS WITH YOU.  God will reshape your shattered dreams.  Wake up and do what you know to do—because GOD IS WITH YOU.” 

GOD IS WITH US.

Say it out loud right now, “GOD IS WITH ME.  I MAY NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING ON THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN BUT I TRUST THAT GOD IS WITH ME.”

This coming week, as you go about your life, look with Joseph eyes.  Wear the Joseph style sandals. Joseph did not get to live his well-planned-out-dreamlife, his dreams fell silently shattered on the dirt floor of his life…but because of a baby named JESUS–God reshaped Joseph’s dreams into more than Joseph could have asked or imagined. “How can the son of man be father to the son of God?” Look up that song, “JOSEPH’S SONG”. Give a listen. Put Joseph’s sandals on. Yes, dreams have been shattered. BUT GOD…EMMANUEL…is with us.

God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you.

See You Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.'” Luke 1:13

Dear Saintly Seed-Sowers,

Advent is here!  We have 4 Sundays ahead! Let’s start now and prepare our hearts and our homes for our holidays. I read a post the other day saying it’s okay to have a simple holiday; the first Christmas was simple.  Simply divine! Sometimes we can get lost in all the extra wrapping of what we’ve made Christmas out to be. This year, let’s go simple. You can still give all the gifts and presents but let’s remember the real meaning of Christmas: Christ.

Advent means coming!  Advent is all about preparation. Sometimes we forget that before God sent his Son into the world, God prepared the way for His one and only Son. Did you know that Jesus arrived on the scene after 400 years of silence from God? It’s true. The angel, Gabriel, appeared to a priest named Zechariah. And Jesus arrived after Gabriel visited numerous people. The idea was simple: preparation. God even saw fit to prepare the way for his Son by sending a baby named John to Zechariah and Elizabeth. This baby would call people to repentance. Even God is into preparation.  Do you believe that God is preparing us during this time of Covid-19? Let’s explore the church season of Advent.

Are you prepared for Christmas? I am not asking if you have your tree up, or if you have your shopping completed but are you personally prepared for the birth of the Savior?  Are you prepared for the arrival of God’s Son? One might wonder how to get prepared. Dr. Luke can help us; he tells us the story of an old Jewish priest and his wife.

I encourage you to read the birth announcements found in Luke 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 and 2 during this season of Advent.  I believe if we spend a little time sitting with God’s Word we will be prepared for the Advent of the Christ child in our hearts and homes for our holidays.

Zechariah was a priest–a faithful priest who was out performing his duties even though God had been silent for 400 years and had not answered his own lifetime of prayer to have a child.  We also read that Zechariah was fearful when the angel Gabriel appeared in the Holy of Holies.  Zechariah was also faithless when he did not believe what Gabriel was telling him–that Elizabeth would soon become pregnant and bear a son named John. We also read that Zechariah was favored. The Lord had, indeed, remembered Zechariah and had heard his prayer. Zechariah had to be at least 80 years old by now. I wonder if Zechariah had ever lost hope.

I wonder as we are going through this harrowing time of Covid-19 if many of us have lost hope.  Will this pandemic ever end?  Will we ever get back to our lives as we once knew them?  Has God forgotten us?  Why does God not hear our prayers?

The name Zechariah means “The Lord Remembers.”

The name Elizabeth means “My God Is Absolutely Faithful.”

The angel said to Zechariah, “Your prayer has been heard.”  What prayer? This passage does not mention a prayer.  The angel must have been talking about Zechariah’s prayer for a child. God had not forgotten Zechariah’s prayer. Here’s a good point: We need to remember that “GOD REMEMBERS”.

We are told by Gabriel that Elizabeth would soon became pregnant and stay in seclusion for five months. We do not know why she did this. Some scholars say she was afraid of losing the baby. Luke does not tell us the reason for the seclusion (sounds familiar) but he does tell us Elizabeth spent the time thanking and praising God. During this time, she was thinking and talking about how God had worked in her life to bless her and how God took away her disgrace. Elizabeth remembers that “God is absolutely FAITHFUL.”

Makes me think of all the opportunities we have during this Covid-19 to be in seclusion. While Elizabeth is secluded, she spend her time thanking and praising God.  Wow!  How would our lives be different if we took time every day during our seclusion and quarantine to thank and praise God? Every day I walk by Alexa and I say, “Play Christian music”, “Play Christian piano music”, “Play Christian hymns” and all day long our laundry room is filled with praise! (Our bedroom is next to the laundry!)

This priestly couple reminds us that it does not matter how long you have known God, or how well you’ve obeyed God, or how faithfully you’ve served God, you always have room for growth. God is committed to stretching and growing the faith of people; people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and God is committed to doing the same in people like you and me.

SO WHAT?
The “so what?” question for today is:  How do these words written so long ago about the Advent of the Christ-child change me and bring to me the hope I need?

Zechariah was not prepared for the Advent of Christmas because he did not believe God could step into his life and answer his long-forgotten prayers. But God.  But God did in ways old Zech had never dreamed. I wonder if some of us here today are secretly disappointed with God, but afraid to admit it. Like old Zechariah, we just do what we are supposed to do, never really believing that God is at work to bless us in ways that would totally overwhelm us and silence us. As always, put yourself into this story and don’t just put yourself into it in one character–but into as many as you can think of: Zechariah, Elizabeth, the other 17,999 priests who serve in the temple, the neighbors, the family. What can you learn this week from the first Advent candle of hope? I have a good acronym for HOPE: Heaven’s One Promise–Eternity, Emmanuel. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your one hope, your one promise? Emmanuel, God with us? I do.  I believe it with all of my heart, mind, soul.

Many of you know that this year has been hard on so many. With the quarantines, lockdowns, shut-downs and Covid-19 infecting so many of us. We have members of our church who have lost loved ones during this time.  Some have not had the opportunity to celebrate the lives of their loved ones with a memorial service because of the quarantine.  I have lost my mother-in-law, my brother and my dad this year.  My wife and I have been taking care of my 88-year-old father-in-law who has severe dementia.  We have been caring for him for 24/7 for the past 10 months.  There are times when hope seems to be elusive–even to me, an ordained pastor of 22 years and a youth pastor for another 15 years before that and 3 years of seminary where God answered my prayers almost daily with blessings through others in our community.

As I was flying home from Illinois this past week after we celebrated my dad’s life, I spent some time looking out the airplane window and reflecting and my life.  I grieve the loss of my dad and the time we had together. I am so thankful for my stepmom, mama Sue, who loved my dad into heaven. As Christians, we have a hope that will never disappoint us.  We have a hope that will sustain us through hard times, hard times exactly like Covid-19.  We have a hope that conquerors death. We have the hope and the power of the resurrection. Don’t just glance by and not see the wonder of HOPE. Yes, Christ came to earth as a helpless baby but don’t miss that Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb of death. HE IS RISEN! Talk about HOPE!

God has a way of sending signals of hope to remind us that life is stronger than death. Light is more powerful than dark. God is more powerful than Satan. Good will overcome evil. Joy is stronger than disappointment.  Hope is answered prayer—no matter how long it takes. This is the message of the first Advent candle of Christmas: just as God meticulously prepared the way for Jesus to be born, God is painstakingly at work in each of our lives—preparing our hearts, and minds, and souls for Christ’s arrival. And–not just once but Christmas comes every year. Christmas is time to marvel at the wonder of HOPE. Advent is a time to prepare. Week one of Advent:  am I prepared? Do I believe that God is at work—answering our prayers–in ways I cannot imagine?  Do I dare to trust God enough–to take away my defects, disgrace, and my disappointment? It’s been a dark year for me but hear me when I say: I HAVE HOPE!

But the angel said to (your name here), “Do not be afraid, (your name here), for your prayer has been heard.”

What prayer is it that you need to be heard? Don’t be afraid. PRAY IT! God hears you.

·     From faithful to fearful to faithless to favored.

·       Am I open to God answering my prayer in ways I have never dreamed of?

·       Am I prepared for Christmas?

This week spend some time reading the gospel story of Christ’s birth in Luke.  Tell God where you need a blessing in your life. Pray.  Maybe you need to feel forgiven.  Every night at about 7 pm, I walk my father-of-love down the hallway to his bedroom. Every night as we make that trip he says, “Thank you, David, for teaching me about forgiveness. I can forgive others because I’ve been forgiven.” Every year Christmas comes on December 25. Every year we have a STOP/GAP opportunity to STOP and take a serious look at our lives. I’m praying this is a simply divine year of Christmas for you.

Let us pray:
O God of HOPE, you come into our lives in such amazing ways.  We ask and pray that You will come again this Advent season.  Come and fill the hopeless situations in our lives with hope, touch the hurting parts of our life with Your healing presence.  Remove our disgrace.  Answer our prayers.  Bless us, O God of Hope.  Prepare in each of us, a heart with room to spare for the birth of the Christ child, the living Savior come into our world to redeem, restore, and reconcile—do this in me this Advent Season.  In the precious name of Jesus, I pray. And, just like Zechariah, let me know you hear my prayer! Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

Dear Faithful, fearless & fruitful Seed sowers,

“God With Us” is the series that we are working through at The Seed Christian Fellowship of Rancho Cucamongam California! It is my prayer that as we look at the big stories of the Bible we see how God was with all the people and that God is with us, too.  In last week’s Seed of faith we laid a foundation of Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

In this story you can find at least three different groups of people. The conformer, those who bow down and worship the golden statue.  Then there are the informers, those who are jealous of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they will not bow down. This group goes and tells.  And you have the last group, the reformers. The reformers are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They did not bow down. This is how it is recorded in Daniel 3:12 — “But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The convictions, the beliefs and the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego provided their enemy (and  coworkers) with an opportunity to accuse the four men of sedition, disloyalty, subversion and treason. The informers go to work doing what informers do:  they phrase their remarks in such a manner as to work King Nebuchadnezzar into the greatest possible rage and agitation. “Furious with rage” is what we are told.  Nebuchadnezzar brought the three young men before him and probed them for a confession. “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?” Daniel 3:14

No reply is recorded, but there must have been one. They must have told the king that what he had been told about them was correct.

Nebuchadnezzar offered to give them another chance.

Here in this story lies a problem that confronts every follower of the One True God: when the requirements of serving God come into conflict with the demands of a secular world—to whom do you bow down to?

Are you in this story, yet? Put yourself in Babylon, standing in front of the King. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not go to seek more time or to get a professional lawyer’s advice. These young men did not rationalize their options.  They did not try to justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. They simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

What is the king’s reply?  “But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Daniel 3:15

These words written in Daniel 3:16-18 are some of the most memorable verses in the Old Testament.  “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’” Daniel 3:16-18

What in the world? Are you with me? Are you right here in this story? You are standing before the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar with your BFF’s. Here’s a great idea to ponder: What gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the conviction and the faith they needed to remain loyal to? Here’s my answer.  I believe that they knew that the God whom they worshiped and served was sovereign.  They knew their Scriptures and they were not going to worship any false idols.  They were willing to die for their faith.  These three were faithful!

When we read the rest of the story, Nebuchadnezzar is furious with rage; he has his soldiers light the fire in the furnace seven times hotter! Then orders the three men — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego– to be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The furnace is so hot that the soldiers who bound the 3 men together and threw them into the furnace are killed by the intensity and searing heat of the fire. Are you in this story? This is one red, hot fire.

What happens next is miraculous! In the middle of the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar sees not three men, but four. He knows he threw three men into the furnace but now—he sees four in furnace.

Who is the fourth man?

Is this the pre-incarnate Christ?  Is this “GOD WITH US”?

Nebuchadnezzar is astonished and calls for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out of the fiery furnace.  They come out unharmed, no smell of smoke or fire and not a hair is singed.  ARE YOU STILL WITH ME IN THIS STORY ?

These three were fearless and faithful and because they were fearless and faithful, they were fruitful.

Nebuchadnezzar now expresses a profound truth by saying — “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” Daniel 3:28

This past week I celebrated my 23^rd year of ordained ministry. I have served four churches during those 23 years. I have faced elder boards and church kings and queens who would have preferred I had a softer world view of loving Jesus. If only I’d bow just a little bit, I would fit in better with the people and my approval ratings could soar. There was only one problem here for me: I gave up everything in order to follow Jesus. Conform. Inform. Reform. Transform. What would I choose?

What will you choose? Who will you choose when it’s your turn in the fire?

I want to be able to say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

That’s my prayer for each one of us. I want you to be faithful. I want you to know that no matter what fiery furnace you face being thrown into, there’s a fourth man in the fire! His name is Jesus Christ. He is KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. He’s beaten that fiery furnace. He has also defeated hell, death and the grave.  He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of GOD ALMIGHTY. And it is Jesus who will help you to become faithful, fearless, and fruitful.

A long time ago, and I mean a long time ago, it was so long ago that it was during the days I had turned my back on Jesus. I was rambunctious. And I became a part of plan to tell a small fib to the police.  Do you hear me? It was innocent enough. I was at home with my wife but my friend had outrun the police for speeding and somehow ended up at my house. If my friend confessed, he would lose his license. I did what any friend would do. I went to the police station and said it was me. I thought they’d give me the ticket and let me go. Nope. They threw the book at me: evading the police, disturbing the peace and finally lying to the police. Let me tell  you something, my wife was furious with me. She went down to bail me out, and the police interrogated her in a separate room and she sang like a bird! You see, Jac told the truth. She wasn’t going to lie for me. She told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Fortunately for me, they let me go.  The next morning at 6 a.m. the phone rang. It was my Nana. Jac answered the phone and Nana said, “Put David on the phone.” Nana loved Jesus. Nana had raised me. I explained what had happened. (Nana had heard the morning police report!) I will never forget what she told me, “David, all you have is your name. Do not bow to this world. Under zero circumstances, do not bow to this world.” She hung up on me. Listen, I didn’t know it at the time but I know it now. Jesus was the fourth man in that fire. I began to live for Christ again and I’ve not ever bowed to any other God. There isn’t a church that can make me retract my love for God. There’s not an elder board that make me go backwards with fear instead of forward in faith. Like Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me.”

Are you in the fire today? Look around. There’s a champion in there with you. The Lord Jesus Christ is a firefighter like no other. It may get hot but not a hair on you will be singed. Keep your eyes on the one, true God.

I’m praying for you!

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed Sowers,

This is my prayer for you as we travel through some of the big, bible stories together. I pray you remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray the Holy Spirit emboldens you to remain fearless and I pray that you plant all the seeds you can and that those seeds grow each season.

Do you believe these three words: GOD WITH US? or even GOD WITH ME?

How do these three words affect your life? How could these three words affect your life? 

Over the next few weeks, we will spend time together in the Old Testament book of Daniel.  Today we jump into the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and then we find our ourselves in the lion’s den with Daniel.
Get ready! This is going to be a great series to put yourself into the story! Maybe you already feel like you’re there, living the story! Maybe it feels like you have been in a fiery furnace this past year or maybe you’ve found yourself in the lion’s den with this worldwide pandemic.

The GOOD NEWS is found in these three, small, but mighty, words:

GOD WITH US.

GOD WITH ME.

Let’s set the stage for the next two weeks as we study Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel:

Babylon is the ruling power in the days of Daniel.  Nebuchadnezzar is the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar has already attacked the southern kingdom of Judah three times, beginning in 605 B.C. The second invasion occurred in 597 B.C. when Jehoiakim, son of the king of Judah mentioned in Daniel 1:1–2, was compelled to surrender Jerusalem and go into captivity with many of the Jewish leaders, including the royal family, the commanders of the army, craftsmen, and some of the priests like Ezekiel. The third invasion is the one I remember the most. It took place in 586B.C. when Jerusalem was completely destroyed, and the people of the land were deported to Babylon. A side note of interest is that the prophet Jeremiah was in Jerusalem at the time of this final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Daniel and his three friends were taken in the first deportation of the people of Judah under King Jehoiakim.  All four of these young men came from noble or royal descent and were teenagers when taken into captivity. All four had been given Jewish names that reflected their families’ faith and their God: Daniel and Mishael both end in “el’ which is the plural for “Elohim.” Daniel means — “God is my Judge,” Mishael means, “Who is like God?” The names of the other two, Hananiah and Azariah, both contain a shortened form of the name Jehovah. Hananiah means “Jehovah is Gracious” while Azariah means “Jehovah is my Helper”. The very names of these men were reminders of their heritage and a challenge for them to remain faithful to the Lord. But now, they were deported into a strange, pagan land, and their names were changed. Add insult to injury because their new names contain a reference to one of the false gods of the ancient Babylonians:  Marduk, Aku and Nego. Daniel wan renamed Belteshazzar, which means “Guard my life,”  it was a prayer to Marduk, one of the Babylonian pagan gods.  By changing their Jewish names to Babylonian names, this was a way of saying that these four, young men who had been servants of the Jewish God, were now servants and worshipers of the gods of the pagan pantheon. How would you like to be renamed by a pagan system, after a false god?

I want to emphasize something here, and it’s a good “SO WHAT?” for us. The change of their names accomplished nothing.
You see, King Nebuchadnezzar had changed the men’s names, but he could not change their hearts. What does this mean for you and me? No matter we are going through, no matter how tough life is–no one can change your heart without your permission. Remember this.

The four men remained faithful to the true God of Israel.

Will we be faithful to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? When life gets burning hot, will I remain faithful? (Write that down.  Think about that!)

As we begin this story, I want you to place yourself into what’s going on. We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Babylon. Nothing is the same, nothing is familiar anymore; they have even changed our names to honor their gods. 

Can you relate? A year ago, things were pretty normal but not for long. Covid 19 hit us and so did masks, gloves and the rush on paper products! Life has not been normal. Life has been anything but normal this past year. And, yet, can we be more like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Can we remain faithful to God? 

GOD WITH US!

GOD WITH ME.

When Daniel and his three friends were taken captive to a foreign land and given different names did God make a mistake?  Did God forsake them?  As we are all faced with a world-wide pandemic, does God not know what is happening?  Has God forgotten us?

Has your faith begun to fail?  Go ahead and read this story. Put yourself right there into Babylon. And answer this question:

To whom or to what do I bow?

As you read, remember this:  These young men did not sit down and rationalize our their options.  They did not justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. These young men simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

So What?
I am reminded of the great theologian and church reformer, Martin Luther, when he was on trial at the Diet of Worms. Luther was told by his authorities to recant his convictions, and to recant the 95 questions on the door of the Wittenberg Castle. Listen to Luther’s reply as his very life was at stake: “Here I stand.  I can do no other. May God help me.”

I have a long homework project for you to do this week. Read the following question. Pray about it. Think about it. You can even discuss it with people you love. Here’s the question:

What are my convictions? (Conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion.)

And now a final “So What?” homework question: which of the above convictions are worth the fiery furnace to you?

“HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER. May God be with me.” Isn’t it just another way of saying, “GOD WITH US” or “GOD WITH ME”? 

As I close, the past few weeks have been pretty intense for my wife and I. Caring for Dad in our home has many challenges. Remember the recent MOHS surgery I had on my nose and shoulder? I’m sensitive to the stitches, the gauze, the tape that were used. I have four, dissolvable stitches in my shoulder and it’s going to take 3-4 months for them to dissolve. My entire left side of my shoulder is aflame. I’ve not been taken into captivity by any means but let’s just say, “I get Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And, I’m not bowing down to anything or anyone except the one, true God.” 

Are you there? Are you with me? 

Next week we conclude the fiery furnace and move into the lions’ den. Oh, man! I can hardly wait!

Spoiler alert for next week: there’s a fourth man in the fire and there’s another in your fiery furnace, too.

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 

Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Join us for worship on Sunday at 10am Pacific.  The link for the live interactive worship is:

theseedchristianfellowship.online.church

if you miss the 10am worship on Sunday you can always go to our YouTube channel and watch the complete worship service or just the children’s message for your children or the weekly sermon.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed-Sowers,
It is my prayer that as each one of us walks through this world-wide pandemic that we will be the salt and the light of Christ to our dark world.  May we keep our eyes on Jesus and may His light shine through us.

Last week we looked at being the salt of the earth.  This week let’s take a few minutes and reflect on the call to be the light of the world.  We need to light our lamps of love, joy, faith, mercy, peace and grace into the world we live in.

Last week I challenged you to consider the kind of foundation you are building upon.  Are you a wise-builder or a foolish-builder?  Are you going to build on sinking sand or on the ROCK of Christ?  As I have been reading this week, I came across this great illustration about building on the ROCK and letting your light shine:

Eleven miles off the east coast of Scotland, in the North Sea, stands the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It has endured the ferocious onslaught of the North Sea’s violent storms since 1811. It rests upon less than one acre of solid rock. The small reef is covered by seawater 20 hours of every 24. The builder of the lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, and his band of 65 skilled artisans, had only four hours each day to chink away the stone and gouge a foundation in the rock. As a result of this painstakingly patient work, the 115-foot-tall lighthouse is still in use today–200 years later. There are usually great costs in digging a deep, Christ-like foundation.  Do it anyway. Your legacy will outlast you if you do!

In 1972, a young Egyptian businessman named Farahat lost an $11,000 watch. He was stunned when a garbage man dressed in filthy rags found it and returned it to him. Farahat asked him why he didn’t just keep the watch. The garbage man said, “My Christ told me to be honest until death.” Farahat later told a reporter: “I didn’t know Christ at the time, but I told the garbage man that I saw Christ in him. I told him, ‘Because of what you have done and your great example, I will worship the Christ you are worshiping.'”  Farahat studied the Bible and grew in his faith. Two years later he visited the garbage man’s village outside Cairo, where between 15,000 and 30,000 people were living in poverty and squalor. There was no electricity or running water. Alcohol, drugs, and gambling were pervasive. Men, women, and children sifted through huge mountains of garbage, looking for something of value that could be sold for cash or traded for food. Farahat found himself reflecting on the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He also remembered the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:13, “We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things.” It was soon thereafter that Farahat and his wife began ministering to people’s spiritual and material needs. They preached the gospel throughout Egypt, and thousands of people turned to Christ.  In 1978, Farahat was ordained by the Coptic Orthodox Church and became known as Father Sama’an. Now, about 10,000 believers meet in a large cave outside the garbage village. It is the largest church of believers in the Middle East. In May of 2005, a day of prayer was held for Muslims to turn to Christ. More than 20,000 Arab Christians gathered. The event was also broadcast on a Christian satellite TV network, where millions were watching. All this, because one garbage man chose to humbly return a watch that would have made him the richest man in town.[i]

Wherever you are, whoever you are–you can be the light of Christ. Build deeply into the foundation of Christ. Let Christ’s light shine in you. Go love others.

SO WHAT?
Jesus is on the mountaintop teaching us how to improve our lives.

·         You are the salt of the earth. 

·         You are the light of the world.

Do you come to church to worship the living God?  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to RUB the love of God into your heart each Sunday?  Do we let our daily devotionals and weekly Bible Studies season our lives so that we are ready to flavor our part of the world—our home, work places, schools, neighborhoods and church?  If we had an ingredient list—how far down would the Jesus-factor be?

Jesus was onto something at the mountaintop.  From His viewpoint, he saw a decaying world.  What about you? Will you do whatever it takes to be the salt and light of your world? Remember Robert Stevenson only had four hours each day to gouge a foundation into solid rock but that lighthouse is still in use–200 years later.

The work you do in your lifetime has the opportunity to outlive you. 

When the waves of the world are crashing all around you, you can stand safely and securely in the midst of the storm.  Why? Because you have built your foundation upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 5: And the light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it. The BELL ROCK lighthouse has safely guided the seas for over 200 years. Why? Its foundation is embedded deeply into the rock it rests upon. May the same be said of you and me.

See you Sunday …

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Dear Seed-Sowers,
I hope and pray that you are all well, safe, healthy and growing in grace. I have been rereading Matthew 5 this week and reflecting on Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Wow!  There is so much meat in chapters 5-7 of Matthew. (Perhaps a challenge for you to read these chapters for a week?) In the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are to be poor in spirit, called to be merciful and meek, called to hunger and thirst for righteousness in order that we may be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”  In essence, what Jesus is telling the people gathered on that mountainside is that they are to not to just sit around listening about HOW to be a Christian, they are to go out and BE a Christian.  Jesus clearly states the purpose of the Christian life — to be salt and light in our world!

SO WHAT? ABOUT “salt”?

SALT: PRESERVATIVE and FLAVOR
In the days of Jesus, and for many centuries thereafter, salt was the most common preservative used.  There were no refrigerators, no deep-freezers in ancient times. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, particularly meat.  When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot” Jesus was telling His disciples that they were called to be the preserving agents to a decaying world.

The simple principle is that you and I are called to be a preserving force in the world–wherever we are called to live, work, and play.

Think of it this way — salt that never leaves the shelf will do no good in preserving anything.  To be effective, the salt had to be rubbed into the meat.  Have you gone into the grocery store and looked at all of the “rubs” they have for seasoning these days?  In the same way, we  must allow God to use us as flavorful seasoning in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and churches.  A small amount of love and kindness goes a long way in making our world a better place.

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I went to buy juice, and I came across an insight on flavoring. I was holding a bottle of Blueberry Pomegranate Juice.  There was a picture of a ripe pomegranate spilling its exotic, glistening seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries.  I read the ingredient list: “Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate.” Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth and seventh in a list of nine ingredients. By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. Meaning a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down the list. According to the jug in my hand, it contained mostly water—a few other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color. In the bottom corner of the front label in small, easy-to-miss type, were the tell-tale words: “Flavored juice blend with other natural ingredients.” The enticing picture and clever labeling were decoys to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product convincingly disguised to look like something it wasn’t. I put the juice back on the shelf.  I chose the juice that was more costly—because it had more of what I was looking for.

SO WHAT? THINK ABOUT THIS:  What if we had an ingredients list printed on us?

Would Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would He be? Would our “label” accurately represent our contents? Or would we falsely project a misleading outward-appearance that cleverly masked our diluted ingredients? This made me think, our outside packaging may look convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing but what if someone came looking specifically for Jesus and found something else?

More than a hundred years ago, the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reproached a group of Christians.  Nietzsche said: “Yuck, you make me sick!” When their spokesman asked why, he answered, “because you redeemed don’t look like you are redeemed.  You are as fearful, guilt-ridden, anxious confused, and adrift in an alien environment as I am.  I am allowed.  I don’t believe. I have nothing to hope for.  But you people claim you have a Savior.  Why don’t you look like you are saved?”[ii]

Friends, it is our calling as Christians to be the salt of the earth.  We are called to bring love, joy, peace, hope, mercy, kindness, and grace into our families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, churches and wherever we go. I think about the people who are serving us in the drive up. I can’t tell you how many times I pull away without something I ordered and paid for. The other day my 89 year old father-in-law taught me a life lesson. The drive up forgot his honey mustard sauce for his chicken nuggets.  We were going to go park and take in the majestic beauty of the San Gabriel mountains while we ate our drive through. No honey mustard? Dad said to me, “It’s okay. The mountains are still beautiful.”

I’m trying to say, be the light and the salt of Christ in a world that’s missing the honey mustard sauce!

As you read the living word of God, I’m praying it becomes a great seasoning salt that’s rubbed deeply into your being.  I’m praying that you are conformed, and transformed by what you read in your Bible. It’s a new year–pick a book (there are 66 of them) and read a paragraph, or a chapter a day. This week: be the salt of the earth. Lord knows, the world needs us!

See you Sunday.
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

At The Seed it is our hope and prayer that you come to know the love of God, grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and go into our world sowing seeds of faith. The SEED wants you to SOW SEEDS OF FAITH in your world.

Know God’s Love!
Grow in Christ’s Grace!
Go in Power of the Holy Spirit!

We sit at the brink of a New Year. The canvas of this year is mostly clean (except for a few weeks). Can we allow the Holy Spirit to help us go in His power to sow seeds of faith, hope, mercy, grace, and love? And, if so, what does that plan look like for each one of us?

January 17th marks the 23rd year of my ordination into full-time ministry. My goal from the very beginning was to serve our mighty God in full-time ministry for at least 25 years. I went into seminary at the ripe, old age of 40 (like Moses)! When people would ask me why I made that career change, I would answer that I had 25 good years left in me! You see, I was a Good Year tire dealer, and the choice was to dream God’s dream or play it safe and sell tires for the next 25 years. I’m so glad God placed that giant-sized burden of ministry onto my shoulders way back in 1994. My prayer as I begin my 24th year of ordained ministry serving in a church is that God will lead me all the way. I want to finish these 25 years of ministry STRONG! I want to press on and reach the goal. I don’t want to slow down and coast past the finish line. God gave me a plan and I’m in it to win it. How about you? Perhaps you are 40 years old and you are being called into a brand, new career, too? My only advice for you:  read your living WORD, pray and obey.

And so, for the 23rd year I have been doing just that. I’ve been opening my Living Word, praying and seeking God’s heart on what my 2021 preaching schedule could look like. I’m always open to the Holy Spirit changing my plan but, as of yet, God’s plans have worked! And so, at the end of December, I sat down and spent time seeking God’s voice for The Seed.  “What do you want me to preach on in 2021?” To be boldly honest with you, I am extremely excited to begin a New Year and a new sermon series: “God With Us.”

All during Advent, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart, “Dave, with all the world has been going through, stop and reflect on the three little words of Christmas:  “God With Us.”   Isaiah* 7:14 — “Therefore the Lord himself will give you (this pronoun is plural it include you and me) a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God With Us.)  *Just a quick invitation — I am teaching the book of Isaiah on Wednesday nights in our Get-A-Life group.  We are doing this study by ZOOM at the present time.  If you would like to join our study, send me an email at pastordave@theseedchristianfellowship.com and I will send you a ZOOM invite. (We begin at 6:30 pm Pacific Time; believe it or not, we have people from the east coast who join us.)

This Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel showed up to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  Listen to how Matthew records this in Matthew 1:20-23:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23

Did you hear those three, little words?  GOD WITH US!   Three little words with big meaning. All wrapped up in one little Hebrew name, “Immanuel.”

Maybe a good “so what?” question before we dig into our message for this week is:

Do you believe those three little words — GOD WITH US? How do these three, little words affect your life? Is God with you?

Like everyone else I have been waiting and watching all that has been happening in our world in this world-wide pandemic and again I am watching with all the political upheaval. These days are tumultuous, turbulent, trying and terribly frightening.  There seems to be confusion in the chaos. Friends and family members are getting sick and some are dying.  Businesses are closed, schools are shutdown and moved to online, Even our churches closed and moved online. Relationships have been limited and stretched to the limits. Families have been isolated and quarantined from one another.  Many people are struggling with depression, doubt and despair.  Some are asking — “How Long — Lord?”   Fear, frustration and anxiety and anger seem to be the emotions that are being expressed by so many.

Do you believe those three, little words — GOD WITH US?

How do these three, little words affect and impact your life?

There is a story told of two missionaries who were captured and imprisoned in the same cell but forbidden to speak to each other. Christmas came. One of the missionaries, shivering and silent, sat on the floor covered with hay. As he was playing with bits of hay around him, he thought that he discovered a silent way of communicating with his friend. He spelled out the word Immanuel. As soon as his friend saw the word, immediately he lit up with joy. They were captives, but they both believed that God was with them and that ultimate triumph would be theirs.[i]

Listen, if you are all alone: the SEED has spelled out for you in the straw of life: IMMANUEL! GOD IS WITH YOU!

So What?
Over the next few months as we make our way to Easter, I am going to share some of the famous stories in the Bible, stories where God showed up despite dark, dismal days.  God was with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in a fiery furnace. God was with Daniel in a lion’s den.  God was with David when
he faced a giant named Goliath. God was with Elijah when he was confronted by hundreds of prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. God was Elisha when he raised the dead son of the Shunamite and filled the widow’s olive oil jar to overflowing. God was with Jonah in the belly of the big fish. God was with Samson, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the prophets. The entire bible is filled with stories that beat the odds.  God has not left us! GOD IS WITH US!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

This is my prayer for us as we journey through 2021.  No matter what, I want you to know that GOD IS WITH YOU. He’s with you whether you have small children and are losing your mind being encapsulated! God is with you whether you are sick and need medical care. God is with you even if you are all alone and feel as though you are dying of loneliness.

GOD WITH US.  SAY IT OUT LOUD. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS HARD: GOD WITH ME. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS GOOD: GOD WITH ME. PRAY IT OVER YOUR FAMILY WHEN THEY ARE STRUGGLING:  GOD WITH US.

Every day my wife and I care for Dad in our home. Andy celebrates his 89th birthday on MLK Jr Day! He’s ordered a prime rib, corn and baked potato dinner cooked at home. Jac’s been busy getting cards from people who know Dad. We will hang up the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign and put 89 on top of his chocolate cake. You see, Dad suffers from end stage Alzheimer’s and the past few months have take a toll on his mind and body but not his spirit. Every night as Dad and I head down the hallway to his bedroom, Dad tells me, “Talk about forgiveness, Dave. No baggage.” Dad is aware that I preach on Sundays and record messages for the radio and you tube. After 23 years of ordained ministry, I pray I never forget: GOD WITH US. I AM FORGIVEN. NO BAGGAGE. Amen.

It’s not about our power, it’s about GOD’S POWER at work IN us. There.  Do you see it?

GOD WITH US. Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Matthew 2:10-12

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

Happy Epiphany! The twelve days of Christmas have come to end.  January 6th (of every year) is the day the church celebrates Epiphany. Epiphany means “manifestation”. Manifestation means an event, action or object that clearly shows or embodies a theory or abstract idea!  Epiphany is the day celebrated as the manifestation of Jesus to Gentiles with the visit of the wise men from the East. I encourage you to read the story of the wise men and their visit to see the Christ-child born King.  You can find the story in Matthew 2:1-12.

The story of the wise men visiting the Christ child is an intriguing one. These magi waited, they watched and when they saw the promise of the star fulfilled, they went and worshiped. There’s a group of poignant words for today: waited, watched, went, worshiped.

We have been waiting for this worldwide pandemic to be under control.  We have been waiting for our families to come back together.  We have been waiting to go back to school in person.  We have been waiting for our churches to open so that we can come and worship together in community.

What have you been waiting for?  What are you watching for?  With the lockdown and quarantine, I am sure that many have had the opportunity to watch a lot of TV programs. Some of us had the opportunity to go outside in December that watch Saturn and Jupitar align and give us a bright star.  Nasa called it the Christmas Star, or the Star of Bethlehem.  The next time these two planets will align like they just did will be in 800 years. I wonder if this is the star that the wise men were watching for? But the real question for us is: what are you watching for?

Can you comprehend this story of the wise men from east?   This traveling caravan of wise-men and servants began a long trip to Israel simply because a particular star was in the sky, alerting them to the birth of the King of the Jews.  They traveled for several months before they finally met the Christ-child.

I believe that this story is more than a story to entertain us, it is a story to teach us about our own personal response to Christ, “the child born the king of the Jews.”

Maybe a good little “so what” for each one of us — “what is our response to the child born King of the Jews?’

So what do the wise men have to do with us today?  What can we learn from them?  I believe that. at times, we are a lot like King Herod—uncomfortable. King Herod was uncomfortable … “he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”   The verb used for “frightened” in the original Greek is very descriptive and has been translated into English with many different words like “disturbed, terrified, and frightened.”  The verb is in the active voice and it literally means “to shake, stir up, trouble or agitate.” the Bible says that he was terrified of a new king, even if that king was a baby.

I also believe that, at times, we are a lot like the chief priests and the teachers of the law–unwilling. They new that the Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem.  Yet, they were unwilling to go five miles.

My hope and prayer is that we will learn to overcome our uncomfortableness, unwillingness and become unleashed in our faith as the Magi were.  

Unleashed with the news of the birth of the Christ child.

Unleashed like the wise men to bow down and worship the King with the gifts of our lives.

We sit at the brink of a new year.  The slate is clean. The canvas of 2021 is blank.  Are we going to be uncomfortable, unwilling or unleashed in 2021?

Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revivalist, sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. He added to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions. Edwards put at the top of his list: “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions.…Remember to read over these resolutions once a week.”[i]

Edwards did not casually make New Year’s resolutions with an expectation of eventually breaking them.  Each week he did a self-check. He regularly summed up how he was doing and sought God’s help in the process.

What are our resolutions for this New Year?  What are we going to write on our slate for 2021?  What are we going to paint onto the canvas of our life in 2021?  What are our resolutions for our church?    What are our resolutions for children’s ministry, youth ministry and adult small-group ministries for 2021? Where is God calling us into fellowship and mission work? You all know we have supported Children Everywhere for 20 years. In 2010 we began having NOISY SUNDAY and have just passed the milemarker of raising $25,000 for our rescue homes in Zambia. Today our leadership board voted to begin investing in a new ministry from India. How in the world did God lead us here? Byron was walking by the house with his dog. Jac and I were outside and my wife felt this overwhelming impression that this man was a special person in God’s eyes.  “Hey, what do you do for a living?” Not your average thing to say to people walking their dog by our house. I can honestly say she’s never asked that another person in her entire 66 years of life. Byron stopped and we pursued into a deep and meaningful conversation about ministry. A month later, our board is on board to support women in India. Is this a fulfillment of a life of learning to WAIT, WATCH, WENT, WORSHIP? Should I mention my wife’s word of intention for 2020 was WAIT?

When I became a Christian my mentor and pastor asked me to pick a life verse.  The first verse that I memorized was Proverbs 3:5-6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

But the verse I chose as my life verse was from Paul’s letter to Philippians … Philippians 3:10-11:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul continues to encourage the church in Philippi while he sits in prison

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul the Apostle wrote in his letter to the Philippians that he wanted to forget what was behind and he wanted to strain for what was ahead.  He wrote that he wanted to win the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus.

My “so what” question for you today as you make your New Year resolutions: “are you in it to win it?”

Are you going to forget what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead?

As the wise-men waited, watched, went, and worshiped–can you answer this question: Am I ready to wait, watch and worship?  Am I in it to WIN it?

Whatever our personal resolutions may be, whatever our resolutions for our church may be, I pray we all seek God’s help, regularly check up on how we are doing, and I pray we become unleashed to be in it to win it — to finish the race that is set before us.

My prayer for each and every one of us is that we all would be unleashed!  Unleashed to seek Christ!  Unleashed to ask for directions!  Unleashed to worship in spirit and truth!

Let us make one resolution as God’s family:  Let us resolve to simply follow like the wise men and then  return home a different way!  Let us offer God our blank slates for our lives in 2021.  Let us agree with Jonathan Edwards, “Being sensible that we are unable to do anything without God’s help, we humbly entreat God’s grace to complete everything that Christ has planned for us.”  Hey, it could be as honest and simple as asking the dogwalker, “What do you do for a living?” Paul preached Christ–and strained for what was ahead. Who knows what 2021 holds for each of us? GOD. GOD KNOWS. Wait. Watch, Went. Worship.

Let us pray — God of creation, your love is so amazing.   Help us not to be like Herod—uncomfortable because we only have enough room for one king–me, myself and I.  Help us not to be like the chief priests and teachers of the law—unwilling to let the news of Christ rule in our hearts but let us become unleashed like the wise men.  Foolish to abandon ourselves fully by following the newborn King!  May we all be unleashed to seek you, to follow you, and to find you.  May we be unleashed to worship You in spirit and in truth!  Give us dreams and visions of Your great love and lead us by Your guiding light.  We pray we will wait, watch, and worship.  We pray our gifts will be a gift fit for the newborn, CHRIST CHILD King!  Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love.
Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701  

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” Isaiah 42:9

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” I Peter 1:3-5

Dear Faithful Friends, Saintly Seed-Sowers, and Courageous Covid-Warriors,

Above are a few passages of Scriptures that I turn to as I prepare for each New Year.  I think of all we each had to walk through in 2020.  Who would have imagined that a world-wide pandemic would shut down our lives on a dime? I also like to reflect on the new year and on the “new things” that God will do in my life, your life, and in the lives of all of us during this new year: 2021!

I love the passage from Revelation: Write them down for they are “trustworthy and true.”  What powerful words to reflect on!  What words are your hearing? What words are you reading? What words are you thinking on?

Did you know that the word “new” is used 192 times in the Bible? The word “new” is used with the words — “new moon, new wine, new harvest, new king, new treasure, new tomb (Jesus’ burial), new command (love), new life, new song, and new name” to name just a few.  The Hebrew word for ‘new” is “חָדָשׁ chadash” and it means “new, fresh, to reveal.”  The Greek word for “new” is a combination of two words — kainos (καινος), neos (νεος).

As we sit on the brink of this NEW Year, think about this. The slate is clean for this New Year.  The pages of your life in 2021 have yet to be written. I read this devotional thought from Robert G Lee:

“If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, that carried no balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and finally every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. what would you do?

Draw out every cent—of course!

Well, you have such a bank, and its’ name is “Time.” Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off—as lost—whatever of this you failed to invest into good purpose. It carries no balances. It allows no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day the bank named “Time” opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.”

One gift that COVID-19 has given me is the gift of time. My wife and I are caring for her elderly father-in-law with severe Alzheimer’s. We are aware that each day contains 86,400 seconds and, yet we are blessed to be able to keep dad at home. Have you thought about what gifts this pandemic has blessed you with?

This year I am hoping to end my day with this question: Did I spend my 86,400 seconds wisely?

Here is to a very Happy New Year!

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His everlasting and His mercy that is NEW every morning.

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”  Luke 1:46-47

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers and Christmas Centered Christ followers,
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON! Don’t ever forget that. No pandemic can shut down the real reason for the Christmas season. All over the world the faithful are preparing their hearts, homes and holidays for the arrival of the KING OF KINGS. I pray you are almost ready!

It is my prayer that during this 2020 “covid” Advent season, you are able to see, feel, taste, sense, and hear the Advent hope, love, joy and peace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Before we begin our journey this week, let me first ask you a question. 

What is your attitude about joy?

This may sound like a silly question — I think all of us would rather be happy than sad.   I believe that we would rather be up than down.  I would go a step further and say most of us prefer to be around others who are joyful, happy, and positive.

Happiness and joy are not the same thing.  Happiness depends on a happening, something from the outside while joy comes from within ourselves.

I love the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls after 70 years of desolation and destruction. Wow!  We have only had 10 months of isolation and lockdown. Nehemiah wants to encourage the people to continue to keep rebuilding.  They are surrounded by their enemies Sanballat, Tobias, Gresham.  Their walls are broken down.  Their spirits are down and Nehemiah shouts out these wonderful, powerful, life-changing words found in Nehemiah 8:10:

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

DO NOT GRIEVE … FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH.

These are words that we can take to heart as we continue to walk through this world-wide pandemic.

The so what comes early this today — So What is your attitude about joy?
Do you take the time to cultivate joy in your life? 
Do you see joy as an important foundation for your life, and if so, where does this joy come from?
Who or what is the source of your JOY?

Joy!  You may be saying, “How can there be joy in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. How can there be joy when I am locked down in my house?  How can there be joy when all I do is spend my time on my computer screen for class or work. Joy, are you kidding me?  You haven’t seen my TO DO list, have you?
I still have a week of school left—bah humbug!”  I bet you know people like old Ebenezer  Scrooge, who lived most of his life with a “bah humbug” attitude.

The trouble with waiting for JOY to happen is that we will always have more work to do.

The good news is that we CAN increase the joy in our lives, regardless of our circumstances, by taking and making the time to celebrate.

Let me repeat that statement!

We can increase our joy by taking and making the time to celebrate!

This is my 22^nd Christmas in ordained pastoral ministry and 40^th Christmas in ministry total (18 years as youth pastor).  It never ceases to amaze me how stressful and depressing the holidays can be for so many people—especially Christians—and all the while we have the answer right in front of us, lying in a manger. The Christ Child:  Immanuel, GOD WITH US. 

Sometimes at Christmas we can find ourselves nursing wounds from the past or wallowing in self-pity over what we do not have and over the bad choices we have made.  We find ourselves remembering harsh words, sad disappointments, and difficult interactions from our past.    We think we will never be free and, like Scrooge, we want to “extinguish” the truth.  “Extinguish the pain” is often our first response to wounds and regrets, but there is a better way.

Jesus was born in a stable — a small, cramped, congested, messy place! A newborn baby was out-of-place among the dusty animals, the musty straw and all the usual smells, sights and sounds found in a stable.  But this mess is our holy message of Christmas!  There is no stable, no place in our world or in our lives or hearts that is too broken, too poor, too remote, too rejected, too outcast or too messy that God cannot be found and formed in us—Immanuel, God with us.

I encourage you to take and read the Gospel stories in Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1 & 2.

The Gospel — Good News story in Luke 1:39-56 gives us the right focus for us today.  Here we have Elizabeth, beyond childbearing age but now six-months pregnant with her first child, a son, John. {He will become John the Baptist.}  Elizabeth is visited by her relative, Mary.  Mary was young, poor, female…unmarried, and pregnant.  I love the stories in the Bible.  Not because the people are the cream of the crop, the WHO’S WHO of WHOVILLE; no!  I love the stories because they are people just like you and me.  Both of these woman had pain in their lives:  Elizabeth had suffered for many years—probably 50 years—because she could not bear a child.  Her childlessness was viewed by others as a curse from God.  Elizabeth felt humiliated and hopeless for years—and  what happens? She is old AND pregnant!  Mary decides to go visit Elizabeth after Gabriel has appeared to her and shared the good news that she will bear a son named Jesus.  Mary is the opposite of Elizabeth.  She is not old and pregnant.  Mary is young, unmarried, and pregnant; yet Mary knows that this baby is God’s own son.

As Mary enters Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth’s baby LEAPS within her and Elizabeth gives a glad cry She exclaims that Mary is blessed above all women!  You know, these two could have had quite a pity party…but they did not.  In verse 46 Mary responds to Elizabeth by saying, “My soul GLORIFIES the Lord.”  Do you know that another word for GLORIFY is MAGNIFY?  Magnify:  to make something greater/to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect/to enlarge in fact or appearance.  What Mary is saying is, “You know, this is not the greatest timing for me, either.  We can focus on the negative or…we can focus on the good.   You know what? We may not understand this but my soul is going to magnify the Lord.”

Elizabeth and Mary chose to cultivate joy.  Instead of magnifying their worries and woes, they chose to magnify the Lord.

Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE states it this way: “I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” Luke 1:46-47 

Mary knew God as a God of power and as a God who was concerned for her.  Mary knew God as the ONE who cares for the humble and hungry.   Mary knew her Old Testament Scriptures.  There are at least fifteen Old Testament quotes or allusions in her song of praise.  Because Mary and Elizabeth had believed the Word of God, they each experienced the power of God.  The result of their magnifying the Lord is an outpouring of JOY.  What a lesson for each of us!

Each one of us has a choice to make.  We can focus on what we do not have, or we can focus on what we do have.  

SO WHAT?
We are turning the corner to Christmas!  What a story of JOY we have been given in Elizabeth and Mary!  Christ is the holder of our past, present and future.

The message of Christmas is this:  mess or no mess…IMMANUEL—GOD WITH US—is arriving in few days!  Yes, there’s tons yet to do.  Yes, we may not get it all done.  Yes, our painful pasts may be crying out but we have a choice to make:  will we magnify the pain or we will magnify the Lord?

Here’s our series so far:

Week 1:  HOPE:  Hope in harrowing times! We need to remember to no be afraid.  God hears your prayers.
Week 2:  LOVE:  God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you. Remember Immanuel — God is with us!
Week 3:  JOY:  We all have a choice to make!  Choose joy and allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength.

Oh, let us MAGNIFY the LORD this week as we PREPARE for CHRISTMAS DAY!  I want us to burst with GOD NEWS and to DANCE the SONG of our SAVIOR GOD!

Let us pray:  God, only You know the depth and width of our yesterdays.  Only you can help us to heal.  These last ten days of Advent help us to prepare our hearts and our homes for the celebration of Your one and only Son’s arrival.  Unchain our hearts and help us to BUILD relationships with love.  This week we ask for JOY!  Help us to magnify the good and to sing, “Joy to the world!  The Lord is come:  let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room—and heaven and nature SING!”  We want to be full of the GOD NEWS…so that we dance all week long with JOY!  Amen. 

I have a great story to share with you. After last Sunday’s message, my wife said, “I want God to bring JOY to me this week in a way that makes me dance and sing.” I will make this short. Our daughter is a Special Education teacher and she just recently took on a home teach student with medical issues that keep her homebound. I can’t give you much information but I can tell you this young student is on dialysis and this young student heads up a CHRISTMAS TOY DRIVE for the children on dialysis at Loma Linda hospital. There’s actually ten different SEEDS OF FAITH in this one story but let me just say this: my wife posted a need on her facebook page, 7 people responded. Today that young student delivered a TRUCK LOAD of toys to 3 dialysis clinics!

My wife’s words, “THIS. THIS IS CHRISTMAS!”

We are singing and dancing here on GALA Avenue. That’s my prayer for you: THAT YOU FIND CHRIST IN THIS COVID CHRISTMAS because when we choose to magnify GOD…no one can steal our JOY!

Jesus. Others. You.

Merry Christmas!

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do i,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,

It is only a few weeks before we celebrate the birth of Christ.  Christmas!  Are you ready?  Are you ready for Christ to be born anew in your heart and home and in your holidays?

Last week, we started our Advent series. Advent means “coming” and, for sure, whether or not we are ready, Christmas is coming! There are four Sundays in Advent. Today is our second Advent message. We have two Sundays left in order for us to focus on preparing our hearts, our homes, our holidays for the celebration of Christmas! Our first Advent Sunday we heard about “Hope in Harrowing Times”. We talked about Zechariah and Elizabeth who had waited many years to have a child.  They were old, their hopes had been dashed and delayed. We learned that the Christmas story occurs after a 400-year silence from God; from Malachi to Matthew–silence! The people of Israel had been hoping and waiting for their Messiah for 400 years.  Their hope had been long delayed.  They are now being ruled in their own homeland by a Roman Emperor. Can we imagine that scenario?

Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the people of Israel, all understood having hope in harrowing times. Their story reminds me of our story today. I always ask you to put yourself into the story of the Bible. With COVID-19, I think we can all understand trying to keep our hope alive.

What about you?  Have you ever had your hope delayed? Have you ever had a day or two where you have lost hope in these harrowing times of Covid-19?  I know I have; my hope has been stretched to the limits this year with the death of mother-in-law, my brother, and my dad.  And besides all of this grief, there is just the plain grief of 2020/COVID-19. Church isn’t what it used to be. Everything had changed.  I think we are all aware of the sorrow we feel from of the loss of what we called “normal”.  I am sure we can all relate to having our hope delayed. I pray every day that we can find hope in these harrowing times. Thank God for Advent!

Thank God! We have lit the candle of HOPE—Heaven’s One Promise: Emmanuel.

Today we are going to study Joseph. We are going to see how God’s love endured for Joseph. Do you know that the definition of “endured” means “to suffer something painful or difficult patiently”?

Do you believe that God’s love will endure for you in this time of Covid-19 shutdown, lockdowns, quarantines, loss, illness and even death? Will your love endure as you suffer through this painful and difficult time?

Advent hope brings God’s enduring love; a love that will help us to suffer through this painful season, this difficult time, patiently. There is no other way. We have all been placed into this Covid-19 season and, with God’s love, we will endure. We may suffer but we will endure.

Think about Joseph for a minute!  What was going on in his mind?  He was at his father’s house preparing a place for his lovely bride.  He had been working, planning, and dreaming about his future and the life he and Mary would have together. What were his hopes and dreams? Was he thinking about how many children they would have?  Would they be boys, or would he have girls? Was he hoping to build up his father’s business so that they could have camels and lots of sheep?  Was Joseph dreaming of taking his family on yearly vacations to the Sea of Galilee?  Was he hoping and dreaming of bringing the family down to Jerusalem for the yearly festival of Passover?

Joseph was a happy man at this point in his life.  He was going to be married and his life was looking good. And then one day, it all came crashing down.  Mary was pregnant!  How could this be?  What would people think?  What would people say?  His beautiful bride-to-be was pregnant?  Mary told him about her encounter with the angel Gabriel and what the angel said: “Mary, you are highly favored.  The Lord is with you, Mary.  Do not be afraid—you are going to be with child!  Name him Jesus.  He will be called the Son of the Most High!  Nothing is impossible with God, Mary!” (Luke 1:30-32)

Does Joseph believe Mary?  No! His dreams were LOST!  His dreams are shattered!  His hopes are dashed! What happens next in this story?  Have you entered this story? Are you Joseph? Mary? The angel? Are you the parent of Joseph? Or the nosy next-door-neighbor?

The word states that Joseph was a “righteous man”; instead of making Mary’s pregnancy public and shaming her, Joseph decides “to dismiss her”.  The Greek word Matthew uses is ἀπολύω [apoluo /ap·ol·oo·o/] — “to set aside, to put away.” Joseph sets Mary aside.

Dismissing is the common word used in their culture for divorce.  Joseph did not want to disgrace Mary.  She could be stoned for being pregnant and not married.  Joseph loved Mary deeply, but he did not believe Mary’s story. He decided to set her aside, put her away, and dismiss her. And by now, he’s exhausted and goes to sleep!

Lost Dreams!  Dreams shattered.  Have you ever been there?  Are you there now?

So What?
How many of us feel like Joseph? Enter 2020. We started out our year believing that 2020 was going to be a year of perfect vision, you know—20/20! And…maybe, just maybe, 2020 is actually, in all reality, truly becoming a year of perfect vision to each one of us. I do not know about you, but I know that my focus is on my faith, my focus on God is the only thing that is helping me to patiently endure this season. Money cannot buy me out of this situation. The law cannot help me. Position or power—they cannot get me out of this, either. I have one thing that has come into perfect vision for me: my relationship with God.

Wonder if this is where Joseph found himself?

Have your dreams been lost?  Have your dreams been shattered? Maybe you have lost your dream home.  Maybe you cannot get ahead and stay ahead.  Maybe your health is an area of concern, especially right now with this pandemic. Maybe you have been dealing with depression or anxiety.  Maybe there is a relationship in your life that has been broken and you wonder if it will ever be repaired. Maybe your dream job has been eliminated and you are the one out looking for employment in a covid world.  We are living in a time when dreams are being shattered right and left—and if it is not your turn on the dream smasher/chopping block—then I bet that you know someone whose dreams are being smashed against the rocky cliffs of the storms of life as we share this devotional.

Joe does what any man would do. He decides a nap is in order.

Can you imagine what happened when Joseph woke up from his nap? Joseph had a dream. He heard from the Lord through an angel in a dream.  Did you notice what Joseph did in verse 24 of Matthew 1?

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  He had no union with her until she gave birth to a son…and Joseph named the baby– JESUS.

When Joseph woke up from his “pull the covers over my head and sleep the world away” dream…he got up and did EXACTLY what the angel told him to do.  He did not talk it over with his Dad, he did not ask his best friend for advice, he did not go to work and take a poll on what everyone thought he should do. He obeyed.  He went and took Mary as his wife.  Remember the home he built?  He went and got Mary and brought her new home to live with him. He did not care what others would say when they found out she was pregnant.  Joseph had been visited by an angel in a dream. “Mary, I love you. Come home with me.  Be my wife. I get it. An angel visited me, too. We’re naming our son Jesus!”   And…just like that Joseph was given a new dream and a new promise—”the baby is from the Holy Spirit and you shall name him Jesus and they shall call him EMMANUEL—God with us!”

The “so what” for us today is the exact same “so what” as it was for Joseph:

(Put your name here), it is going to be okay.  I know this is not what you had planned.  I know you do not have a clue why this is happening…but the baby’s name is Jesus — He will save you from your sins.  You shall call him EMMANUEL—GOD IS WITH YOU.  

If your dreams have been shattered or drastically altered, I want you to hear what the angel said, “EMMANUEL, GOD IS WITH YOU.  Do not be afraid—GOD IS WITH YOU.  God will reshape your shattered dreams.  Wake up and do what you know to do—because GOD IS WITH YOU.” 

GOD IS WITH US.

Say it out loud right now, “GOD IS WITH ME.  I MAY NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING ON THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN BUT I TRUST THAT GOD IS WITH ME.”

This coming week, as you go about your life, look with Joseph eyes.  Wear the Joseph style sandals. Joseph did not get to live his well-planned-out-dreamlife, his dreams fell silently shattered on the dirt floor of his life…but because of a baby named JESUS–God reshaped Joseph’s dreams into more than Joseph could have asked or imagined. “How can the son of man be father to the son of God?” Look up that song, “JOSEPH’S SONG”. Give a listen. Put Joseph’s sandals on. Yes, dreams have been shattered. BUT GOD…EMMANUEL…is with us.

God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you.

See You Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.'” Luke 1:13

Dear Saintly Seed-Sowers,

Advent is here!  We have 4 Sundays ahead! Let’s start now and prepare our hearts and our homes for our holidays. I read a post the other day saying it’s okay to have a simple holiday; the first Christmas was simple.  Simply divine! Sometimes we can get lost in all the extra wrapping of what we’ve made Christmas out to be. This year, let’s go simple. You can still give all the gifts and presents but let’s remember the real meaning of Christmas: Christ.

Advent means coming!  Advent is all about preparation. Sometimes we forget that before God sent his Son into the world, God prepared the way for His one and only Son. Did you know that Jesus arrived on the scene after 400 years of silence from God? It’s true. The angel, Gabriel, appeared to a priest named Zechariah. And Jesus arrived after Gabriel visited numerous people. The idea was simple: preparation. God even saw fit to prepare the way for his Son by sending a baby named John to Zechariah and Elizabeth. This baby would call people to repentance. Even God is into preparation.  Do you believe that God is preparing us during this time of Covid-19? Let’s explore the church season of Advent.

Are you prepared for Christmas? I am not asking if you have your tree up, or if you have your shopping completed but are you personally prepared for the birth of the Savior?  Are you prepared for the arrival of God’s Son? One might wonder how to get prepared. Dr. Luke can help us; he tells us the story of an old Jewish priest and his wife.

I encourage you to read the birth announcements found in Luke 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 and 2 during this season of Advent.  I believe if we spend a little time sitting with God’s Word we will be prepared for the Advent of the Christ child in our hearts and homes for our holidays.

Zechariah was a priest–a faithful priest who was out performing his duties even though God had been silent for 400 years and had not answered his own lifetime of prayer to have a child.  We also read that Zechariah was fearful when the angel Gabriel appeared in the Holy of Holies.  Zechariah was also faithless when he did not believe what Gabriel was telling him–that Elizabeth would soon become pregnant and bear a son named John. We also read that Zechariah was favored. The Lord had, indeed, remembered Zechariah and had heard his prayer. Zechariah had to be at least 80 years old by now. I wonder if Zechariah had ever lost hope.

I wonder as we are going through this harrowing time of Covid-19 if many of us have lost hope.  Will this pandemic ever end?  Will we ever get back to our lives as we once knew them?  Has God forgotten us?  Why does God not hear our prayers?

The name Zechariah means “The Lord Remembers.”

The name Elizabeth means “My God Is Absolutely Faithful.”

The angel said to Zechariah, “Your prayer has been heard.”  What prayer? This passage does not mention a prayer.  The angel must have been talking about Zechariah’s prayer for a child. God had not forgotten Zechariah’s prayer. Here’s a good point: We need to remember that “GOD REMEMBERS”.

We are told by Gabriel that Elizabeth would soon became pregnant and stay in seclusion for five months. We do not know why she did this. Some scholars say she was afraid of losing the baby. Luke does not tell us the reason for the seclusion (sounds familiar) but he does tell us Elizabeth spent the time thanking and praising God. During this time, she was thinking and talking about how God had worked in her life to bless her and how God took away her disgrace. Elizabeth remembers that “God is absolutely FAITHFUL.”

Makes me think of all the opportunities we have during this Covid-19 to be in seclusion. While Elizabeth is secluded, she spend her time thanking and praising God.  Wow!  How would our lives be different if we took time every day during our seclusion and quarantine to thank and praise God? Every day I walk by Alexa and I say, “Play Christian music”, “Play Christian piano music”, “Play Christian hymns” and all day long our laundry room is filled with praise! (Our bedroom is next to the laundry!)

This priestly couple reminds us that it does not matter how long you have known God, or how well you’ve obeyed God, or how faithfully you’ve served God, you always have room for growth. God is committed to stretching and growing the faith of people; people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and God is committed to doing the same in people like you and me.

SO WHAT?
The “so what?” question for today is:  How do these words written so long ago about the Advent of the Christ-child change me and bring to me the hope I need?

Zechariah was not prepared for the Advent of Christmas because he did not believe God could step into his life and answer his long-forgotten prayers. But God.  But God did in ways old Zech had never dreamed. I wonder if some of us here today are secretly disappointed with God, but afraid to admit it. Like old Zechariah, we just do what we are supposed to do, never really believing that God is at work to bless us in ways that would totally overwhelm us and silence us. As always, put yourself into this story and don’t just put yourself into it in one character–but into as many as you can think of: Zechariah, Elizabeth, the other 17,999 priests who serve in the temple, the neighbors, the family. What can you learn this week from the first Advent candle of hope? I have a good acronym for HOPE: Heaven’s One Promise–Eternity, Emmanuel. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your one hope, your one promise? Emmanuel, God with us? I do.  I believe it with all of my heart, mind, soul.

Many of you know that this year has been hard on so many. With the quarantines, lockdowns, shut-downs and Covid-19 infecting so many of us. We have members of our church who have lost loved ones during this time.  Some have not had the opportunity to celebrate the lives of their loved ones with a memorial service because of the quarantine.  I have lost my mother-in-law, my brother and my dad this year.  My wife and I have been taking care of my 88-year-old father-in-law who has severe dementia.  We have been caring for him for 24/7 for the past 10 months.  There are times when hope seems to be elusive–even to me, an ordained pastor of 22 years and a youth pastor for another 15 years before that and 3 years of seminary where God answered my prayers almost daily with blessings through others in our community.

As I was flying home from Illinois this past week after we celebrated my dad’s life, I spent some time looking out the airplane window and reflecting and my life.  I grieve the loss of my dad and the time we had together. I am so thankful for my stepmom, mama Sue, who loved my dad into heaven. As Christians, we have a hope that will never disappoint us.  We have a hope that will sustain us through hard times, hard times exactly like Covid-19.  We have a hope that conquerors death. We have the hope and the power of the resurrection. Don’t just glance by and not see the wonder of HOPE. Yes, Christ came to earth as a helpless baby but don’t miss that Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb of death. HE IS RISEN! Talk about HOPE!

God has a way of sending signals of hope to remind us that life is stronger than death. Light is more powerful than dark. God is more powerful than Satan. Good will overcome evil. Joy is stronger than disappointment.  Hope is answered prayer—no matter how long it takes. This is the message of the first Advent candle of Christmas: just as God meticulously prepared the way for Jesus to be born, God is painstakingly at work in each of our lives—preparing our hearts, and minds, and souls for Christ’s arrival. And–not just once but Christmas comes every year. Christmas is time to marvel at the wonder of HOPE. Advent is a time to prepare. Week one of Advent:  am I prepared? Do I believe that God is at work—answering our prayers–in ways I cannot imagine?  Do I dare to trust God enough–to take away my defects, disgrace, and my disappointment? It’s been a dark year for me but hear me when I say: I HAVE HOPE!

But the angel said to (your name here), “Do not be afraid, (your name here), for your prayer has been heard.”

What prayer is it that you need to be heard? Don’t be afraid. PRAY IT! God hears you.

·     From faithful to fearful to faithless to favored.

·       Am I open to God answering my prayer in ways I have never dreamed of?

·       Am I prepared for Christmas?

This week spend some time reading the gospel story of Christ’s birth in Luke.  Tell God where you need a blessing in your life. Pray.  Maybe you need to feel forgiven.  Every night at about 7 pm, I walk my father-of-love down the hallway to his bedroom. Every night as we make that trip he says, “Thank you, David, for teaching me about forgiveness. I can forgive others because I’ve been forgiven.” Every year Christmas comes on December 25. Every year we have a STOP/GAP opportunity to STOP and take a serious look at our lives. I’m praying this is a simply divine year of Christmas for you.

Let us pray:
O God of HOPE, you come into our lives in such amazing ways.  We ask and pray that You will come again this Advent season.  Come and fill the hopeless situations in our lives with hope, touch the hurting parts of our life with Your healing presence.  Remove our disgrace.  Answer our prayers.  Bless us, O God of Hope.  Prepare in each of us, a heart with room to spare for the birth of the Christ child, the living Savior come into our world to redeem, restore, and reconcile—do this in me this Advent Season.  In the precious name of Jesus, I pray. And, just like Zechariah, let me know you hear my prayer! Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

Dear Faithful, fearless & fruitful Seed sowers,

“God With Us” is the series that we are working through at The Seed Christian Fellowship of Rancho Cucamongam California! It is my prayer that as we look at the big stories of the Bible we see how God was with all the people and that God is with us, too.  In last week’s Seed of faith we laid a foundation of Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

In this story you can find at least three different groups of people. The conformer, those who bow down and worship the golden statue.  Then there are the informers, those who are jealous of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they will not bow down. This group goes and tells.  And you have the last group, the reformers. The reformers are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They did not bow down. This is how it is recorded in Daniel 3:12 — “But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The convictions, the beliefs and the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego provided their enemy (and  coworkers) with an opportunity to accuse the four men of sedition, disloyalty, subversion and treason. The informers go to work doing what informers do:  they phrase their remarks in such a manner as to work King Nebuchadnezzar into the greatest possible rage and agitation. “Furious with rage” is what we are told.  Nebuchadnezzar brought the three young men before him and probed them for a confession. “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?” Daniel 3:14

No reply is recorded, but there must have been one. They must have told the king that what he had been told about them was correct.

Nebuchadnezzar offered to give them another chance.

Here in this story lies a problem that confronts every follower of the One True God: when the requirements of serving God come into conflict with the demands of a secular world—to whom do you bow down to?

Are you in this story, yet? Put yourself in Babylon, standing in front of the King. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not go to seek more time or to get a professional lawyer’s advice. These young men did not rationalize their options.  They did not try to justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. They simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

What is the king’s reply?  “But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Daniel 3:15

These words written in Daniel 3:16-18 are some of the most memorable verses in the Old Testament.  “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’” Daniel 3:16-18

What in the world? Are you with me? Are you right here in this story? You are standing before the pagan King Nebuchadnezzar with your BFF’s. Here’s a great idea to ponder: What gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the conviction and the faith they needed to remain loyal to? Here’s my answer.  I believe that they knew that the God whom they worshiped and served was sovereign.  They knew their Scriptures and they were not going to worship any false idols.  They were willing to die for their faith.  These three were faithful!

When we read the rest of the story, Nebuchadnezzar is furious with rage; he has his soldiers light the fire in the furnace seven times hotter! Then orders the three men — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego– to be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The furnace is so hot that the soldiers who bound the 3 men together and threw them into the furnace are killed by the intensity and searing heat of the fire. Are you in this story? This is one red, hot fire.

What happens next is miraculous! In the middle of the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar sees not three men, but four. He knows he threw three men into the furnace but now—he sees four in furnace.

Who is the fourth man?

Is this the pre-incarnate Christ?  Is this “GOD WITH US”?

Nebuchadnezzar is astonished and calls for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out of the fiery furnace.  They come out unharmed, no smell of smoke or fire and not a hair is singed.  ARE YOU STILL WITH ME IN THIS STORY ?

These three were fearless and faithful and because they were fearless and faithful, they were fruitful.

Nebuchadnezzar now expresses a profound truth by saying — “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” Daniel 3:28

This past week I celebrated my 23^rd year of ordained ministry. I have served four churches during those 23 years. I have faced elder boards and church kings and queens who would have preferred I had a softer world view of loving Jesus. If only I’d bow just a little bit, I would fit in better with the people and my approval ratings could soar. There was only one problem here for me: I gave up everything in order to follow Jesus. Conform. Inform. Reform. Transform. What would I choose?

What will you choose? Who will you choose when it’s your turn in the fire?

I want to be able to say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

That’s my prayer for each one of us. I want you to be faithful. I want you to know that no matter what fiery furnace you face being thrown into, there’s a fourth man in the fire! His name is Jesus Christ. He is KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. He’s beaten that fiery furnace. He has also defeated hell, death and the grave.  He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of GOD ALMIGHTY. And it is Jesus who will help you to become faithful, fearless, and fruitful.

A long time ago, and I mean a long time ago, it was so long ago that it was during the days I had turned my back on Jesus. I was rambunctious. And I became a part of plan to tell a small fib to the police.  Do you hear me? It was innocent enough. I was at home with my wife but my friend had outrun the police for speeding and somehow ended up at my house. If my friend confessed, he would lose his license. I did what any friend would do. I went to the police station and said it was me. I thought they’d give me the ticket and let me go. Nope. They threw the book at me: evading the police, disturbing the peace and finally lying to the police. Let me tell  you something, my wife was furious with me. She went down to bail me out, and the police interrogated her in a separate room and she sang like a bird! You see, Jac told the truth. She wasn’t going to lie for me. She told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Fortunately for me, they let me go.  The next morning at 6 a.m. the phone rang. It was my Nana. Jac answered the phone and Nana said, “Put David on the phone.” Nana loved Jesus. Nana had raised me. I explained what had happened. (Nana had heard the morning police report!) I will never forget what she told me, “David, all you have is your name. Do not bow to this world. Under zero circumstances, do not bow to this world.” She hung up on me. Listen, I didn’t know it at the time but I know it now. Jesus was the fourth man in that fire. I began to live for Christ again and I’ve not ever bowed to any other God. There isn’t a church that can make me retract my love for God. There’s not an elder board that make me go backwards with fear instead of forward in faith. Like Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other. May God help me.”

Are you in the fire today? Look around. There’s a champion in there with you. The Lord Jesus Christ is a firefighter like no other. It may get hot but not a hair on you will be singed. Keep your eyes on the one, true God.

I’m praying for you!

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed Sowers,

This is my prayer for you as we travel through some of the big, bible stories together. I pray you remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray the Holy Spirit emboldens you to remain fearless and I pray that you plant all the seeds you can and that those seeds grow each season.

Do you believe these three words: GOD WITH US? or even GOD WITH ME?

How do these three words affect your life? How could these three words affect your life? 

Over the next few weeks, we will spend time together in the Old Testament book of Daniel.  Today we jump into the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and then we find our ourselves in the lion’s den with Daniel.
Get ready! This is going to be a great series to put yourself into the story! Maybe you already feel like you’re there, living the story! Maybe it feels like you have been in a fiery furnace this past year or maybe you’ve found yourself in the lion’s den with this worldwide pandemic.

The GOOD NEWS is found in these three, small, but mighty, words:

GOD WITH US.

GOD WITH ME.

Let’s set the stage for the next two weeks as we study Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel:

Babylon is the ruling power in the days of Daniel.  Nebuchadnezzar is the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar has already attacked the southern kingdom of Judah three times, beginning in 605 B.C. The second invasion occurred in 597 B.C. when Jehoiakim, son of the king of Judah mentioned in Daniel 1:1–2, was compelled to surrender Jerusalem and go into captivity with many of the Jewish leaders, including the royal family, the commanders of the army, craftsmen, and some of the priests like Ezekiel. The third invasion is the one I remember the most. It took place in 586B.C. when Jerusalem was completely destroyed, and the people of the land were deported to Babylon. A side note of interest is that the prophet Jeremiah was in Jerusalem at the time of this final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Daniel and his three friends were taken in the first deportation of the people of Judah under King Jehoiakim.  All four of these young men came from noble or royal descent and were teenagers when taken into captivity. All four had been given Jewish names that reflected their families’ faith and their God: Daniel and Mishael both end in “el’ which is the plural for “Elohim.” Daniel means — “God is my Judge,” Mishael means, “Who is like God?” The names of the other two, Hananiah and Azariah, both contain a shortened form of the name Jehovah. Hananiah means “Jehovah is Gracious” while Azariah means “Jehovah is my Helper”. The very names of these men were reminders of their heritage and a challenge for them to remain faithful to the Lord. But now, they were deported into a strange, pagan land, and their names were changed. Add insult to injury because their new names contain a reference to one of the false gods of the ancient Babylonians:  Marduk, Aku and Nego. Daniel wan renamed Belteshazzar, which means “Guard my life,”  it was a prayer to Marduk, one of the Babylonian pagan gods.  By changing their Jewish names to Babylonian names, this was a way of saying that these four, young men who had been servants of the Jewish God, were now servants and worshipers of the gods of the pagan pantheon. How would you like to be renamed by a pagan system, after a false god?

I want to emphasize something here, and it’s a good “SO WHAT?” for us. The change of their names accomplished nothing.
You see, King Nebuchadnezzar had changed the men’s names, but he could not change their hearts. What does this mean for you and me? No matter we are going through, no matter how tough life is–no one can change your heart without your permission. Remember this.

The four men remained faithful to the true God of Israel.

Will we be faithful to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? When life gets burning hot, will I remain faithful? (Write that down.  Think about that!)

As we begin this story, I want you to place yourself into what’s going on. We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Babylon. Nothing is the same, nothing is familiar anymore; they have even changed our names to honor their gods. 

Can you relate? A year ago, things were pretty normal but not for long. Covid 19 hit us and so did masks, gloves and the rush on paper products! Life has not been normal. Life has been anything but normal this past year. And, yet, can we be more like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Can we remain faithful to God? 

GOD WITH US!

GOD WITH ME.

When Daniel and his three friends were taken captive to a foreign land and given different names did God make a mistake?  Did God forsake them?  As we are all faced with a world-wide pandemic, does God not know what is happening?  Has God forgotten us?

Has your faith begun to fail?  Go ahead and read this story. Put yourself right there into Babylon. And answer this question:

To whom or to what do I bow?

As you read, remember this:  These young men did not sit down and rationalize our their options.  They did not justify their actions.  They did not go and discuss their decision with others. They did not stop to consider the arguments of others. These young men simply remained faithful to their one, true God.

So What?
I am reminded of the great theologian and church reformer, Martin Luther, when he was on trial at the Diet of Worms. Luther was told by his authorities to recant his convictions, and to recant the 95 questions on the door of the Wittenberg Castle. Listen to Luther’s reply as his very life was at stake: “Here I stand.  I can do no other. May God help me.”

I have a long homework project for you to do this week. Read the following question. Pray about it. Think about it. You can even discuss it with people you love. Here’s the question:

What are my convictions? (Conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion.)

And now a final “So What?” homework question: which of the above convictions are worth the fiery furnace to you?

“HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER. May God be with me.” Isn’t it just another way of saying, “GOD WITH US” or “GOD WITH ME”? 

As I close, the past few weeks have been pretty intense for my wife and I. Caring for Dad in our home has many challenges. Remember the recent MOHS surgery I had on my nose and shoulder? I’m sensitive to the stitches, the gauze, the tape that were used. I have four, dissolvable stitches in my shoulder and it’s going to take 3-4 months for them to dissolve. My entire left side of my shoulder is aflame. I’ve not been taken into captivity by any means but let’s just say, “I get Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And, I’m not bowing down to anything or anyone except the one, true God.” 

Are you there? Are you with me? 

Next week we conclude the fiery furnace and move into the lions’ den. Oh, man! I can hardly wait!

Spoiler alert for next week: there’s a fourth man in the fire and there’s another in your fiery furnace, too.

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I! 

Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Join us for worship on Sunday at 10am Pacific.  The link for the live interactive worship is:

theseedchristianfellowship.online.church

if you miss the 10am worship on Sunday you can always go to our YouTube channel and watch the complete worship service or just the children’s message for your children or the weekly sermon.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Dear Faithful, Fearless and Fruitful Seed-Sowers,
It is my prayer that as each one of us walks through this world-wide pandemic that we will be the salt and the light of Christ to our dark world.  May we keep our eyes on Jesus and may His light shine through us.

Last week we looked at being the salt of the earth.  This week let’s take a few minutes and reflect on the call to be the light of the world.  We need to light our lamps of love, joy, faith, mercy, peace and grace into the world we live in.

Last week I challenged you to consider the kind of foundation you are building upon.  Are you a wise-builder or a foolish-builder?  Are you going to build on sinking sand or on the ROCK of Christ?  As I have been reading this week, I came across this great illustration about building on the ROCK and letting your light shine:

Eleven miles off the east coast of Scotland, in the North Sea, stands the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It has endured the ferocious onslaught of the North Sea’s violent storms since 1811. It rests upon less than one acre of solid rock. The small reef is covered by seawater 20 hours of every 24. The builder of the lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, and his band of 65 skilled artisans, had only four hours each day to chink away the stone and gouge a foundation in the rock. As a result of this painstakingly patient work, the 115-foot-tall lighthouse is still in use today–200 years later. There are usually great costs in digging a deep, Christ-like foundation.  Do it anyway. Your legacy will outlast you if you do!

In 1972, a young Egyptian businessman named Farahat lost an $11,000 watch. He was stunned when a garbage man dressed in filthy rags found it and returned it to him. Farahat asked him why he didn’t just keep the watch. The garbage man said, “My Christ told me to be honest until death.” Farahat later told a reporter: “I didn’t know Christ at the time, but I told the garbage man that I saw Christ in him. I told him, ‘Because of what you have done and your great example, I will worship the Christ you are worshiping.'”  Farahat studied the Bible and grew in his faith. Two years later he visited the garbage man’s village outside Cairo, where between 15,000 and 30,000 people were living in poverty and squalor. There was no electricity or running water. Alcohol, drugs, and gambling were pervasive. Men, women, and children sifted through huge mountains of garbage, looking for something of value that could be sold for cash or traded for food. Farahat found himself reflecting on the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He also remembered the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:13, “We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things.” It was soon thereafter that Farahat and his wife began ministering to people’s spiritual and material needs. They preached the gospel throughout Egypt, and thousands of people turned to Christ.  In 1978, Farahat was ordained by the Coptic Orthodox Church and became known as Father Sama’an. Now, about 10,000 believers meet in a large cave outside the garbage village. It is the largest church of believers in the Middle East. In May of 2005, a day of prayer was held for Muslims to turn to Christ. More than 20,000 Arab Christians gathered. The event was also broadcast on a Christian satellite TV network, where millions were watching. All this, because one garbage man chose to humbly return a watch that would have made him the richest man in town.[i]

Wherever you are, whoever you are–you can be the light of Christ. Build deeply into the foundation of Christ. Let Christ’s light shine in you. Go love others.

SO WHAT?
Jesus is on the mountaintop teaching us how to improve our lives.

·         You are the salt of the earth. 

·         You are the light of the world.

Do you come to church to worship the living God?  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to RUB the love of God into your heart each Sunday?  Do we let our daily devotionals and weekly Bible Studies season our lives so that we are ready to flavor our part of the world—our home, work places, schools, neighborhoods and church?  If we had an ingredient list—how far down would the Jesus-factor be?

Jesus was onto something at the mountaintop.  From His viewpoint, he saw a decaying world.  What about you? Will you do whatever it takes to be the salt and light of your world? Remember Robert Stevenson only had four hours each day to gouge a foundation into solid rock but that lighthouse is still in use–200 years later.

The work you do in your lifetime has the opportunity to outlive you. 

When the waves of the world are crashing all around you, you can stand safely and securely in the midst of the storm.  Why? Because you have built your foundation upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 5: And the light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it. The BELL ROCK lighthouse has safely guided the seas for over 200 years. Why? Its foundation is embedded deeply into the rock it rests upon. May the same be said of you and me.

See you Sunday …

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Dear Seed-Sowers,
I hope and pray that you are all well, safe, healthy and growing in grace. I have been rereading Matthew 5 this week and reflecting on Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Wow!  There is so much meat in chapters 5-7 of Matthew. (Perhaps a challenge for you to read these chapters for a week?) In the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are to be poor in spirit, called to be merciful and meek, called to hunger and thirst for righteousness in order that we may be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”  In essence, what Jesus is telling the people gathered on that mountainside is that they are to not to just sit around listening about HOW to be a Christian, they are to go out and BE a Christian.  Jesus clearly states the purpose of the Christian life — to be salt and light in our world!

SO WHAT? ABOUT “salt”?

SALT: PRESERVATIVE and FLAVOR
In the days of Jesus, and for many centuries thereafter, salt was the most common preservative used.  There were no refrigerators, no deep-freezers in ancient times. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, particularly meat.  When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot” Jesus was telling His disciples that they were called to be the preserving agents to a decaying world.

The simple principle is that you and I are called to be a preserving force in the world–wherever we are called to live, work, and play.

Think of it this way — salt that never leaves the shelf will do no good in preserving anything.  To be effective, the salt had to be rubbed into the meat.  Have you gone into the grocery store and looked at all of the “rubs” they have for seasoning these days?  In the same way, we  must allow God to use us as flavorful seasoning in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and churches.  A small amount of love and kindness goes a long way in making our world a better place.

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I went to buy juice, and I came across an insight on flavoring. I was holding a bottle of Blueberry Pomegranate Juice.  There was a picture of a ripe pomegranate spilling its exotic, glistening seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries.  I read the ingredient list: “Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate.” Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth and seventh in a list of nine ingredients. By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. Meaning a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down the list. According to the jug in my hand, it contained mostly water—a few other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color. In the bottom corner of the front label in small, easy-to-miss type, were the tell-tale words: “Flavored juice blend with other natural ingredients.” The enticing picture and clever labeling were decoys to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product convincingly disguised to look like something it wasn’t. I put the juice back on the shelf.  I chose the juice that was more costly—because it had more of what I was looking for.

SO WHAT? THINK ABOUT THIS:  What if we had an ingredients list printed on us?

Would Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would He be? Would our “label” accurately represent our contents? Or would we falsely project a misleading outward-appearance that cleverly masked our diluted ingredients? This made me think, our outside packaging may look convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing but what if someone came looking specifically for Jesus and found something else?

More than a hundred years ago, the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reproached a group of Christians.  Nietzsche said: “Yuck, you make me sick!” When their spokesman asked why, he answered, “because you redeemed don’t look like you are redeemed.  You are as fearful, guilt-ridden, anxious confused, and adrift in an alien environment as I am.  I am allowed.  I don’t believe. I have nothing to hope for.  But you people claim you have a Savior.  Why don’t you look like you are saved?”[ii]

Friends, it is our calling as Christians to be the salt of the earth.  We are called to bring love, joy, peace, hope, mercy, kindness, and grace into our families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, churches and wherever we go. I think about the people who are serving us in the drive up. I can’t tell you how many times I pull away without something I ordered and paid for. The other day my 89 year old father-in-law taught me a life lesson. The drive up forgot his honey mustard sauce for his chicken nuggets.  We were going to go park and take in the majestic beauty of the San Gabriel mountains while we ate our drive through. No honey mustard? Dad said to me, “It’s okay. The mountains are still beautiful.”

I’m trying to say, be the light and the salt of Christ in a world that’s missing the honey mustard sauce!

As you read the living word of God, I’m praying it becomes a great seasoning salt that’s rubbed deeply into your being.  I’m praying that you are conformed, and transformed by what you read in your Bible. It’s a new year–pick a book (there are 66 of them) and read a paragraph, or a chapter a day. This week: be the salt of the earth. Lord knows, the world needs us!

See you Sunday.
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

At The Seed it is our hope and prayer that you come to know the love of God, grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and go into our world sowing seeds of faith. The SEED wants you to SOW SEEDS OF FAITH in your world.

Know God’s Love!
Grow in Christ’s Grace!
Go in Power of the Holy Spirit!

We sit at the brink of a New Year. The canvas of this year is mostly clean (except for a few weeks). Can we allow the Holy Spirit to help us go in His power to sow seeds of faith, hope, mercy, grace, and love? And, if so, what does that plan look like for each one of us?

January 17th marks the 23rd year of my ordination into full-time ministry. My goal from the very beginning was to serve our mighty God in full-time ministry for at least 25 years. I went into seminary at the ripe, old age of 40 (like Moses)! When people would ask me why I made that career change, I would answer that I had 25 good years left in me! You see, I was a Good Year tire dealer, and the choice was to dream God’s dream or play it safe and sell tires for the next 25 years. I’m so glad God placed that giant-sized burden of ministry onto my shoulders way back in 1994. My prayer as I begin my 24th year of ordained ministry serving in a church is that God will lead me all the way. I want to finish these 25 years of ministry STRONG! I want to press on and reach the goal. I don’t want to slow down and coast past the finish line. God gave me a plan and I’m in it to win it. How about you? Perhaps you are 40 years old and you are being called into a brand, new career, too? My only advice for you:  read your living WORD, pray and obey.

And so, for the 23rd year I have been doing just that. I’ve been opening my Living Word, praying and seeking God’s heart on what my 2021 preaching schedule could look like. I’m always open to the Holy Spirit changing my plan but, as of yet, God’s plans have worked! And so, at the end of December, I sat down and spent time seeking God’s voice for The Seed.  “What do you want me to preach on in 2021?” To be boldly honest with you, I am extremely excited to begin a New Year and a new sermon series: “God With Us.”

All during Advent, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart, “Dave, with all the world has been going through, stop and reflect on the three little words of Christmas:  “God With Us.”   Isaiah* 7:14 — “Therefore the Lord himself will give you (this pronoun is plural it include you and me) a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God With Us.)  *Just a quick invitation — I am teaching the book of Isaiah on Wednesday nights in our Get-A-Life group.  We are doing this study by ZOOM at the present time.  If you would like to join our study, send me an email at pastordave@theseedchristianfellowship.com and I will send you a ZOOM invite. (We begin at 6:30 pm Pacific Time; believe it or not, we have people from the east coast who join us.)

This Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel showed up to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  Listen to how Matthew records this in Matthew 1:20-23:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23

Did you hear those three, little words?  GOD WITH US!   Three little words with big meaning. All wrapped up in one little Hebrew name, “Immanuel.”

Maybe a good “so what?” question before we dig into our message for this week is:

Do you believe those three little words — GOD WITH US? How do these three, little words affect your life? Is God with you?

Like everyone else I have been waiting and watching all that has been happening in our world in this world-wide pandemic and again I am watching with all the political upheaval. These days are tumultuous, turbulent, trying and terribly frightening.  There seems to be confusion in the chaos. Friends and family members are getting sick and some are dying.  Businesses are closed, schools are shutdown and moved to online, Even our churches closed and moved online. Relationships have been limited and stretched to the limits. Families have been isolated and quarantined from one another.  Many people are struggling with depression, doubt and despair.  Some are asking — “How Long — Lord?”   Fear, frustration and anxiety and anger seem to be the emotions that are being expressed by so many.

Do you believe those three, little words — GOD WITH US?

How do these three, little words affect and impact your life?

There is a story told of two missionaries who were captured and imprisoned in the same cell but forbidden to speak to each other. Christmas came. One of the missionaries, shivering and silent, sat on the floor covered with hay. As he was playing with bits of hay around him, he thought that he discovered a silent way of communicating with his friend. He spelled out the word Immanuel. As soon as his friend saw the word, immediately he lit up with joy. They were captives, but they both believed that God was with them and that ultimate triumph would be theirs.[i]

Listen, if you are all alone: the SEED has spelled out for you in the straw of life: IMMANUEL! GOD IS WITH YOU!

So What?
Over the next few months as we make our way to Easter, I am going to share some of the famous stories in the Bible, stories where God showed up despite dark, dismal days.  God was with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in a fiery furnace. God was with Daniel in a lion’s den.  God was with David when
he faced a giant named Goliath. God was with Elijah when he was confronted by hundreds of prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. God was Elisha when he raised the dead son of the Shunamite and filled the widow’s olive oil jar to overflowing. God was with Jonah in the belly of the big fish. God was with Samson, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the prophets. The entire bible is filled with stories that beat the odds.  God has not left us! GOD IS WITH US!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

This is my prayer for us as we journey through 2021.  No matter what, I want you to know that GOD IS WITH YOU. He’s with you whether you have small children and are losing your mind being encapsulated! God is with you whether you are sick and need medical care. God is with you even if you are all alone and feel as though you are dying of loneliness.

GOD WITH US.  SAY IT OUT LOUD. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS HARD: GOD WITH ME. SAY IT WHEN LIFE IS GOOD: GOD WITH ME. PRAY IT OVER YOUR FAMILY WHEN THEY ARE STRUGGLING:  GOD WITH US.

Every day my wife and I care for Dad in our home. Andy celebrates his 89th birthday on MLK Jr Day! He’s ordered a prime rib, corn and baked potato dinner cooked at home. Jac’s been busy getting cards from people who know Dad. We will hang up the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign and put 89 on top of his chocolate cake. You see, Dad suffers from end stage Alzheimer’s and the past few months have take a toll on his mind and body but not his spirit. Every night as Dad and I head down the hallway to his bedroom, Dad tells me, “Talk about forgiveness, Dave. No baggage.” Dad is aware that I preach on Sundays and record messages for the radio and you tube. After 23 years of ordained ministry, I pray I never forget: GOD WITH US. I AM FORGIVEN. NO BAGGAGE. Amen.

It’s not about our power, it’s about GOD’S POWER at work IN us. There.  Do you see it?

GOD WITH US. Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Matthew 2:10-12

Dear Faithful and Fearless Seed Sowers,

Happy Epiphany! The twelve days of Christmas have come to end.  January 6th (of every year) is the day the church celebrates Epiphany. Epiphany means “manifestation”. Manifestation means an event, action or object that clearly shows or embodies a theory or abstract idea!  Epiphany is the day celebrated as the manifestation of Jesus to Gentiles with the visit of the wise men from the East. I encourage you to read the story of the wise men and their visit to see the Christ-child born King.  You can find the story in Matthew 2:1-12.

The story of the wise men visiting the Christ child is an intriguing one. These magi waited, they watched and when they saw the promise of the star fulfilled, they went and worshiped. There’s a group of poignant words for today: waited, watched, went, worshiped.

We have been waiting for this worldwide pandemic to be under control.  We have been waiting for our families to come back together.  We have been waiting to go back to school in person.  We have been waiting for our churches to open so that we can come and worship together in community.

What have you been waiting for?  What are you watching for?  With the lockdown and quarantine, I am sure that many have had the opportunity to watch a lot of TV programs. Some of us had the opportunity to go outside in December that watch Saturn and Jupitar align and give us a bright star.  Nasa called it the Christmas Star, or the Star of Bethlehem.  The next time these two planets will align like they just did will be in 800 years. I wonder if this is the star that the wise men were watching for? But the real question for us is: what are you watching for?

Can you comprehend this story of the wise men from east?   This traveling caravan of wise-men and servants began a long trip to Israel simply because a particular star was in the sky, alerting them to the birth of the King of the Jews.  They traveled for several months before they finally met the Christ-child.

I believe that this story is more than a story to entertain us, it is a story to teach us about our own personal response to Christ, “the child born the king of the Jews.”

Maybe a good little “so what” for each one of us — “what is our response to the child born King of the Jews?’

So what do the wise men have to do with us today?  What can we learn from them?  I believe that. at times, we are a lot like King Herod—uncomfortable. King Herod was uncomfortable … “he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”   The verb used for “frightened” in the original Greek is very descriptive and has been translated into English with many different words like “disturbed, terrified, and frightened.”  The verb is in the active voice and it literally means “to shake, stir up, trouble or agitate.” the Bible says that he was terrified of a new king, even if that king was a baby.

I also believe that, at times, we are a lot like the chief priests and the teachers of the law–unwilling. They new that the Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem.  Yet, they were unwilling to go five miles.

My hope and prayer is that we will learn to overcome our uncomfortableness, unwillingness and become unleashed in our faith as the Magi were.  

Unleashed with the news of the birth of the Christ child.

Unleashed like the wise men to bow down and worship the King with the gifts of our lives.

We sit at the brink of a new year.  The slate is clean. The canvas of 2021 is blank.  Are we going to be uncomfortable, unwilling or unleashed in 2021?

Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revivalist, sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. He added to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions. Edwards put at the top of his list: “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions.…Remember to read over these resolutions once a week.”[i]

Edwards did not casually make New Year’s resolutions with an expectation of eventually breaking them.  Each week he did a self-check. He regularly summed up how he was doing and sought God’s help in the process.

What are our resolutions for this New Year?  What are we going to write on our slate for 2021?  What are we going to paint onto the canvas of our life in 2021?  What are our resolutions for our church?    What are our resolutions for children’s ministry, youth ministry and adult small-group ministries for 2021? Where is God calling us into fellowship and mission work? You all know we have supported Children Everywhere for 20 years. In 2010 we began having NOISY SUNDAY and have just passed the milemarker of raising $25,000 for our rescue homes in Zambia. Today our leadership board voted to begin investing in a new ministry from India. How in the world did God lead us here? Byron was walking by the house with his dog. Jac and I were outside and my wife felt this overwhelming impression that this man was a special person in God’s eyes.  “Hey, what do you do for a living?” Not your average thing to say to people walking their dog by our house. I can honestly say she’s never asked that another person in her entire 66 years of life. Byron stopped and we pursued into a deep and meaningful conversation about ministry. A month later, our board is on board to support women in India. Is this a fulfillment of a life of learning to WAIT, WATCH, WENT, WORSHIP? Should I mention my wife’s word of intention for 2020 was WAIT?

When I became a Christian my mentor and pastor asked me to pick a life verse.  The first verse that I memorized was Proverbs 3:5-6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

But the verse I chose as my life verse was from Paul’s letter to Philippians … Philippians 3:10-11:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul continues to encourage the church in Philippi while he sits in prison

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul the Apostle wrote in his letter to the Philippians that he wanted to forget what was behind and he wanted to strain for what was ahead.  He wrote that he wanted to win the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus.

My “so what” question for you today as you make your New Year resolutions: “are you in it to win it?”

Are you going to forget what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead?

As the wise-men waited, watched, went, and worshiped–can you answer this question: Am I ready to wait, watch and worship?  Am I in it to WIN it?

Whatever our personal resolutions may be, whatever our resolutions for our church may be, I pray we all seek God’s help, regularly check up on how we are doing, and I pray we become unleashed to be in it to win it — to finish the race that is set before us.

My prayer for each and every one of us is that we all would be unleashed!  Unleashed to seek Christ!  Unleashed to ask for directions!  Unleashed to worship in spirit and truth!

Let us make one resolution as God’s family:  Let us resolve to simply follow like the wise men and then  return home a different way!  Let us offer God our blank slates for our lives in 2021.  Let us agree with Jonathan Edwards, “Being sensible that we are unable to do anything without God’s help, we humbly entreat God’s grace to complete everything that Christ has planned for us.”  Hey, it could be as honest and simple as asking the dogwalker, “What do you do for a living?” Paul preached Christ–and strained for what was ahead. Who knows what 2021 holds for each of us? GOD. GOD KNOWS. Wait. Watch, Went. Worship.

Let us pray — God of creation, your love is so amazing.   Help us not to be like Herod—uncomfortable because we only have enough room for one king–me, myself and I.  Help us not to be like the chief priests and teachers of the law—unwilling to let the news of Christ rule in our hearts but let us become unleashed like the wise men.  Foolish to abandon ourselves fully by following the newborn King!  May we all be unleashed to seek you, to follow you, and to find you.  May we be unleashed to worship You in spirit and in truth!  Give us dreams and visions of Your great love and lead us by Your guiding light.  We pray we will wait, watch, and worship.  We pray our gifts will be a gift fit for the newborn, CHRIST CHILD King!  Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love.
Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701  

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” Isaiah 42:9

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” I Peter 1:3-5

Dear Faithful Friends, Saintly Seed-Sowers, and Courageous Covid-Warriors,

Above are a few passages of Scriptures that I turn to as I prepare for each New Year.  I think of all we each had to walk through in 2020.  Who would have imagined that a world-wide pandemic would shut down our lives on a dime? I also like to reflect on the new year and on the “new things” that God will do in my life, your life, and in the lives of all of us during this new year: 2021!

I love the passage from Revelation: Write them down for they are “trustworthy and true.”  What powerful words to reflect on!  What words are your hearing? What words are you reading? What words are you thinking on?

Did you know that the word “new” is used 192 times in the Bible? The word “new” is used with the words — “new moon, new wine, new harvest, new king, new treasure, new tomb (Jesus’ burial), new command (love), new life, new song, and new name” to name just a few.  The Hebrew word for ‘new” is “חָדָשׁ chadash” and it means “new, fresh, to reveal.”  The Greek word for “new” is a combination of two words — kainos (καινος), neos (νεος).

As we sit on the brink of this NEW Year, think about this. The slate is clean for this New Year.  The pages of your life in 2021 have yet to be written. I read this devotional thought from Robert G Lee:

“If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, that carried no balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and finally every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. what would you do?

Draw out every cent—of course!

Well, you have such a bank, and its’ name is “Time.” Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off—as lost—whatever of this you failed to invest into good purpose. It carries no balances. It allows no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day the bank named “Time” opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.”

One gift that COVID-19 has given me is the gift of time. My wife and I are caring for her elderly father-in-law with severe Alzheimer’s. We are aware that each day contains 86,400 seconds and, yet we are blessed to be able to keep dad at home. Have you thought about what gifts this pandemic has blessed you with?

This year I am hoping to end my day with this question: Did I spend my 86,400 seconds wisely?

Here is to a very Happy New Year!

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His everlasting and His mercy that is NEW every morning.

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”  Luke 1:46-47

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers and Christmas Centered Christ followers,
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON! Don’t ever forget that. No pandemic can shut down the real reason for the Christmas season. All over the world the faithful are preparing their hearts, homes and holidays for the arrival of the KING OF KINGS. I pray you are almost ready!

It is my prayer that during this 2020 “covid” Advent season, you are able to see, feel, taste, sense, and hear the Advent hope, love, joy and peace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Before we begin our journey this week, let me first ask you a question. 

What is your attitude about joy?

This may sound like a silly question — I think all of us would rather be happy than sad.   I believe that we would rather be up than down.  I would go a step further and say most of us prefer to be around others who are joyful, happy, and positive.

Happiness and joy are not the same thing.  Happiness depends on a happening, something from the outside while joy comes from within ourselves.

I love the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls after 70 years of desolation and destruction. Wow!  We have only had 10 months of isolation and lockdown. Nehemiah wants to encourage the people to continue to keep rebuilding.  They are surrounded by their enemies Sanballat, Tobias, Gresham.  Their walls are broken down.  Their spirits are down and Nehemiah shouts out these wonderful, powerful, life-changing words found in Nehemiah 8:10:

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

DO NOT GRIEVE … FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH.

These are words that we can take to heart as we continue to walk through this world-wide pandemic.

The so what comes early this today — So What is your attitude about joy?
Do you take the time to cultivate joy in your life? 
Do you see joy as an important foundation for your life, and if so, where does this joy come from?
Who or what is the source of your JOY?

Joy!  You may be saying, “How can there be joy in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. How can there be joy when I am locked down in my house?  How can there be joy when all I do is spend my time on my computer screen for class or work. Joy, are you kidding me?  You haven’t seen my TO DO list, have you?
I still have a week of school left—bah humbug!”  I bet you know people like old Ebenezer  Scrooge, who lived most of his life with a “bah humbug” attitude.

The trouble with waiting for JOY to happen is that we will always have more work to do.

The good news is that we CAN increase the joy in our lives, regardless of our circumstances, by taking and making the time to celebrate.

Let me repeat that statement!

We can increase our joy by taking and making the time to celebrate!

This is my 22^nd Christmas in ordained pastoral ministry and 40^th Christmas in ministry total (18 years as youth pastor).  It never ceases to amaze me how stressful and depressing the holidays can be for so many people—especially Christians—and all the while we have the answer right in front of us, lying in a manger. The Christ Child:  Immanuel, GOD WITH US. 

Sometimes at Christmas we can find ourselves nursing wounds from the past or wallowing in self-pity over what we do not have and over the bad choices we have made.  We find ourselves remembering harsh words, sad disappointments, and difficult interactions from our past.    We think we will never be free and, like Scrooge, we want to “extinguish” the truth.  “Extinguish the pain” is often our first response to wounds and regrets, but there is a better way.

Jesus was born in a stable — a small, cramped, congested, messy place! A newborn baby was out-of-place among the dusty animals, the musty straw and all the usual smells, sights and sounds found in a stable.  But this mess is our holy message of Christmas!  There is no stable, no place in our world or in our lives or hearts that is too broken, too poor, too remote, too rejected, too outcast or too messy that God cannot be found and formed in us—Immanuel, God with us.

I encourage you to take and read the Gospel stories in Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1 & 2.

The Gospel — Good News story in Luke 1:39-56 gives us the right focus for us today.  Here we have Elizabeth, beyond childbearing age but now six-months pregnant with her first child, a son, John. {He will become John the Baptist.}  Elizabeth is visited by her relative, Mary.  Mary was young, poor, female…unmarried, and pregnant.  I love the stories in the Bible.  Not because the people are the cream of the crop, the WHO’S WHO of WHOVILLE; no!  I love the stories because they are people just like you and me.  Both of these woman had pain in their lives:  Elizabeth had suffered for many years—probably 50 years—because she could not bear a child.  Her childlessness was viewed by others as a curse from God.  Elizabeth felt humiliated and hopeless for years—and  what happens? She is old AND pregnant!  Mary decides to go visit Elizabeth after Gabriel has appeared to her and shared the good news that she will bear a son named Jesus.  Mary is the opposite of Elizabeth.  She is not old and pregnant.  Mary is young, unmarried, and pregnant; yet Mary knows that this baby is God’s own son.

As Mary enters Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth’s baby LEAPS within her and Elizabeth gives a glad cry She exclaims that Mary is blessed above all women!  You know, these two could have had quite a pity party…but they did not.  In verse 46 Mary responds to Elizabeth by saying, “My soul GLORIFIES the Lord.”  Do you know that another word for GLORIFY is MAGNIFY?  Magnify:  to make something greater/to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect/to enlarge in fact or appearance.  What Mary is saying is, “You know, this is not the greatest timing for me, either.  We can focus on the negative or…we can focus on the good.   You know what? We may not understand this but my soul is going to magnify the Lord.”

Elizabeth and Mary chose to cultivate joy.  Instead of magnifying their worries and woes, they chose to magnify the Lord.

Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE states it this way: “I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” Luke 1:46-47 

Mary knew God as a God of power and as a God who was concerned for her.  Mary knew God as the ONE who cares for the humble and hungry.   Mary knew her Old Testament Scriptures.  There are at least fifteen Old Testament quotes or allusions in her song of praise.  Because Mary and Elizabeth had believed the Word of God, they each experienced the power of God.  The result of their magnifying the Lord is an outpouring of JOY.  What a lesson for each of us!

Each one of us has a choice to make.  We can focus on what we do not have, or we can focus on what we do have.  

SO WHAT?
We are turning the corner to Christmas!  What a story of JOY we have been given in Elizabeth and Mary!  Christ is the holder of our past, present and future.

The message of Christmas is this:  mess or no mess…IMMANUEL—GOD WITH US—is arriving in few days!  Yes, there’s tons yet to do.  Yes, we may not get it all done.  Yes, our painful pasts may be crying out but we have a choice to make:  will we magnify the pain or we will magnify the Lord?

Here’s our series so far:

Week 1:  HOPE:  Hope in harrowing times! We need to remember to no be afraid.  God hears your prayers.
Week 2:  LOVE:  God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you. Remember Immanuel — God is with us!
Week 3:  JOY:  We all have a choice to make!  Choose joy and allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength.

Oh, let us MAGNIFY the LORD this week as we PREPARE for CHRISTMAS DAY!  I want us to burst with GOD NEWS and to DANCE the SONG of our SAVIOR GOD!

Let us pray:  God, only You know the depth and width of our yesterdays.  Only you can help us to heal.  These last ten days of Advent help us to prepare our hearts and our homes for the celebration of Your one and only Son’s arrival.  Unchain our hearts and help us to BUILD relationships with love.  This week we ask for JOY!  Help us to magnify the good and to sing, “Joy to the world!  The Lord is come:  let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room—and heaven and nature SING!”  We want to be full of the GOD NEWS…so that we dance all week long with JOY!  Amen. 

I have a great story to share with you. After last Sunday’s message, my wife said, “I want God to bring JOY to me this week in a way that makes me dance and sing.” I will make this short. Our daughter is a Special Education teacher and she just recently took on a home teach student with medical issues that keep her homebound. I can’t give you much information but I can tell you this young student is on dialysis and this young student heads up a CHRISTMAS TOY DRIVE for the children on dialysis at Loma Linda hospital. There’s actually ten different SEEDS OF FAITH in this one story but let me just say this: my wife posted a need on her facebook page, 7 people responded. Today that young student delivered a TRUCK LOAD of toys to 3 dialysis clinics!

My wife’s words, “THIS. THIS IS CHRISTMAS!”

We are singing and dancing here on GALA Avenue. That’s my prayer for you: THAT YOU FIND CHRIST IN THIS COVID CHRISTMAS because when we choose to magnify GOD…no one can steal our JOY!

Jesus. Others. You.

Merry Christmas!

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do i,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,

It is only a few weeks before we celebrate the birth of Christ.  Christmas!  Are you ready?  Are you ready for Christ to be born anew in your heart and home and in your holidays?

Last week, we started our Advent series. Advent means “coming” and, for sure, whether or not we are ready, Christmas is coming! There are four Sundays in Advent. Today is our second Advent message. We have two Sundays left in order for us to focus on preparing our hearts, our homes, our holidays for the celebration of Christmas! Our first Advent Sunday we heard about “Hope in Harrowing Times”. We talked about Zechariah and Elizabeth who had waited many years to have a child.  They were old, their hopes had been dashed and delayed. We learned that the Christmas story occurs after a 400-year silence from God; from Malachi to Matthew–silence! The people of Israel had been hoping and waiting for their Messiah for 400 years.  Their hope had been long delayed.  They are now being ruled in their own homeland by a Roman Emperor. Can we imagine that scenario?

Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the people of Israel, all understood having hope in harrowing times. Their story reminds me of our story today. I always ask you to put yourself into the story of the Bible. With COVID-19, I think we can all understand trying to keep our hope alive.

What about you?  Have you ever had your hope delayed? Have you ever had a day or two where you have lost hope in these harrowing times of Covid-19?  I know I have; my hope has been stretched to the limits this year with the death of mother-in-law, my brother, and my dad.  And besides all of this grief, there is just the plain grief of 2020/COVID-19. Church isn’t what it used to be. Everything had changed.  I think we are all aware of the sorrow we feel from of the loss of what we called “normal”.  I am sure we can all relate to having our hope delayed. I pray every day that we can find hope in these harrowing times. Thank God for Advent!

Thank God! We have lit the candle of HOPE—Heaven’s One Promise: Emmanuel.

Today we are going to study Joseph. We are going to see how God’s love endured for Joseph. Do you know that the definition of “endured” means “to suffer something painful or difficult patiently”?

Do you believe that God’s love will endure for you in this time of Covid-19 shutdown, lockdowns, quarantines, loss, illness and even death? Will your love endure as you suffer through this painful and difficult time?

Advent hope brings God’s enduring love; a love that will help us to suffer through this painful season, this difficult time, patiently. There is no other way. We have all been placed into this Covid-19 season and, with God’s love, we will endure. We may suffer but we will endure.

Think about Joseph for a minute!  What was going on in his mind?  He was at his father’s house preparing a place for his lovely bride.  He had been working, planning, and dreaming about his future and the life he and Mary would have together. What were his hopes and dreams? Was he thinking about how many children they would have?  Would they be boys, or would he have girls? Was he hoping to build up his father’s business so that they could have camels and lots of sheep?  Was Joseph dreaming of taking his family on yearly vacations to the Sea of Galilee?  Was he hoping and dreaming of bringing the family down to Jerusalem for the yearly festival of Passover?

Joseph was a happy man at this point in his life.  He was going to be married and his life was looking good. And then one day, it all came crashing down.  Mary was pregnant!  How could this be?  What would people think?  What would people say?  His beautiful bride-to-be was pregnant?  Mary told him about her encounter with the angel Gabriel and what the angel said: “Mary, you are highly favored.  The Lord is with you, Mary.  Do not be afraid—you are going to be with child!  Name him Jesus.  He will be called the Son of the Most High!  Nothing is impossible with God, Mary!” (Luke 1:30-32)

Does Joseph believe Mary?  No! His dreams were LOST!  His dreams are shattered!  His hopes are dashed! What happens next in this story?  Have you entered this story? Are you Joseph? Mary? The angel? Are you the parent of Joseph? Or the nosy next-door-neighbor?

The word states that Joseph was a “righteous man”; instead of making Mary’s pregnancy public and shaming her, Joseph decides “to dismiss her”.  The Greek word Matthew uses is ἀπολύω [apoluo /ap·ol·oo·o/] — “to set aside, to put away.” Joseph sets Mary aside.

Dismissing is the common word used in their culture for divorce.  Joseph did not want to disgrace Mary.  She could be stoned for being pregnant and not married.  Joseph loved Mary deeply, but he did not believe Mary’s story. He decided to set her aside, put her away, and dismiss her. And by now, he’s exhausted and goes to sleep!

Lost Dreams!  Dreams shattered.  Have you ever been there?  Are you there now?

So What?
How many of us feel like Joseph? Enter 2020. We started out our year believing that 2020 was going to be a year of perfect vision, you know—20/20! And…maybe, just maybe, 2020 is actually, in all reality, truly becoming a year of perfect vision to each one of us. I do not know about you, but I know that my focus is on my faith, my focus on God is the only thing that is helping me to patiently endure this season. Money cannot buy me out of this situation. The law cannot help me. Position or power—they cannot get me out of this, either. I have one thing that has come into perfect vision for me: my relationship with God.

Wonder if this is where Joseph found himself?

Have your dreams been lost?  Have your dreams been shattered? Maybe you have lost your dream home.  Maybe you cannot get ahead and stay ahead.  Maybe your health is an area of concern, especially right now with this pandemic. Maybe you have been dealing with depression or anxiety.  Maybe there is a relationship in your life that has been broken and you wonder if it will ever be repaired. Maybe your dream job has been eliminated and you are the one out looking for employment in a covid world.  We are living in a time when dreams are being shattered right and left—and if it is not your turn on the dream smasher/chopping block—then I bet that you know someone whose dreams are being smashed against the rocky cliffs of the storms of life as we share this devotional.

Joe does what any man would do. He decides a nap is in order.

Can you imagine what happened when Joseph woke up from his nap? Joseph had a dream. He heard from the Lord through an angel in a dream.  Did you notice what Joseph did in verse 24 of Matthew 1?

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  He had no union with her until she gave birth to a son…and Joseph named the baby– JESUS.

When Joseph woke up from his “pull the covers over my head and sleep the world away” dream…he got up and did EXACTLY what the angel told him to do.  He did not talk it over with his Dad, he did not ask his best friend for advice, he did not go to work and take a poll on what everyone thought he should do. He obeyed.  He went and took Mary as his wife.  Remember the home he built?  He went and got Mary and brought her new home to live with him. He did not care what others would say when they found out she was pregnant.  Joseph had been visited by an angel in a dream. “Mary, I love you. Come home with me.  Be my wife. I get it. An angel visited me, too. We’re naming our son Jesus!”   And…just like that Joseph was given a new dream and a new promise—”the baby is from the Holy Spirit and you shall name him Jesus and they shall call him EMMANUEL—God with us!”

The “so what” for us today is the exact same “so what” as it was for Joseph:

(Put your name here), it is going to be okay.  I know this is not what you had planned.  I know you do not have a clue why this is happening…but the baby’s name is Jesus — He will save you from your sins.  You shall call him EMMANUEL—GOD IS WITH YOU.  

If your dreams have been shattered or drastically altered, I want you to hear what the angel said, “EMMANUEL, GOD IS WITH YOU.  Do not be afraid—GOD IS WITH YOU.  God will reshape your shattered dreams.  Wake up and do what you know to do—because GOD IS WITH YOU.” 

GOD IS WITH US.

Say it out loud right now, “GOD IS WITH ME.  I MAY NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING ON THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN BUT I TRUST THAT GOD IS WITH ME.”

This coming week, as you go about your life, look with Joseph eyes.  Wear the Joseph style sandals. Joseph did not get to live his well-planned-out-dreamlife, his dreams fell silently shattered on the dirt floor of his life…but because of a baby named JESUS–God reshaped Joseph’s dreams into more than Joseph could have asked or imagined. “How can the son of man be father to the son of God?” Look up that song, “JOSEPH’S SONG”. Give a listen. Put Joseph’s sandals on. Yes, dreams have been shattered. BUT GOD…EMMANUEL…is with us.

God’s enduring love had a plan from the very beginning of time. God’s enduring love had a plan for Joseph. God’s enduring love has a plan for you.

See You Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

“But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.'” Luke 1:13

Dear Saintly Seed-Sowers,

Advent is here!  We have 4 Sundays ahead! Let’s start now and prepare our hearts and our homes for our holidays. I read a post the other day saying it’s okay to have a simple holiday; the first Christmas was simple.  Simply divine! Sometimes we can get lost in all the extra wrapping of what we’ve made Christmas out to be. This year, let’s go simple. You can still give all the gifts and presents but let’s remember the real meaning of Christmas: Christ.

Advent means coming!  Advent is all about preparation. Sometimes we forget that before God sent his Son into the world, God prepared the way for His one and only Son. Did you know that Jesus arrived on the scene after 400 years of silence from God? It’s true. The angel, Gabriel, appeared to a priest named Zechariah. And Jesus arrived after Gabriel visited numerous people. The idea was simple: preparation. God even saw fit to prepare the way for his Son by sending a baby named John to Zechariah and Elizabeth. This baby would call people to repentance. Even God is into preparation.  Do you believe that God is preparing us during this time of Covid-19? Let’s explore the church season of Advent.

Are you prepared for Christmas? I am not asking if you have your tree up, or if you have your shopping completed but are you personally prepared for the birth of the Savior?  Are you prepared for the arrival of God’s Son? One might wonder how to get prepared. Dr. Luke can help us; he tells us the story of an old Jewish priest and his wife.

I encourage you to read the birth announcements found in Luke 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 and 2 during this season of Advent.  I believe if we spend a little time sitting with God’s Word we will be prepared for the Advent of the Christ child in our hearts and homes for our holidays.

Zechariah was a priest–a faithful priest who was out performing his duties even though God had been silent for 400 years and had not answered his own lifetime of prayer to have a child.  We also read that Zechariah was fearful when the angel Gabriel appeared in the Holy of Holies.  Zechariah was also faithless when he did not believe what Gabriel was telling him–that Elizabeth would soon become pregnant and bear a son named John. We also read that Zechariah was favored. The Lord had, indeed, remembered Zechariah and had heard his prayer. Zechariah had to be at least 80 years old by now. I wonder if Zechariah had ever lost hope.

I wonder as we are going through this harrowing time of Covid-19 if many of us have lost hope.  Will this pandemic ever end?  Will we ever get back to our lives as we once knew them?  Has God forgotten us?  Why does God not hear our prayers?

The name Zechariah means “The Lord Remembers.”

The name Elizabeth means “My God Is Absolutely Faithful.”

The angel said to Zechariah, “Your prayer has been heard.”  What prayer? This passage does not mention a prayer.  The angel must have been talking about Zechariah’s prayer for a child. God had not forgotten Zechariah’s prayer. Here’s a good point: We need to remember that “GOD REMEMBERS”.

We are told by Gabriel that Elizabeth would soon became pregnant and stay in seclusion for five months. We do not know why she did this. Some scholars say she was afraid of losing the baby. Luke does not tell us the reason for the seclusion (sounds familiar) but he does tell us Elizabeth spent the time thanking and praising God. During this time, she was thinking and talking about how God had worked in her life to bless her and how God took away her disgrace. Elizabeth remembers that “God is absolutely FAITHFUL.”

Makes me think of all the opportunities we have during this Covid-19 to be in seclusion. While Elizabeth is secluded, she spend her time thanking and praising God.  Wow!  How would our lives be different if we took time every day during our seclusion and quarantine to thank and praise God? Every day I walk by Alexa and I say, “Play Christian music”, “Play Christian piano music”, “Play Christian hymns” and all day long our laundry room is filled with praise! (Our bedroom is next to the laundry!)

This priestly couple reminds us that it does not matter how long you have known God, or how well you’ve obeyed God, or how faithfully you’ve served God, you always have room for growth. God is committed to stretching and growing the faith of people; people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and God is committed to doing the same in people like you and me.

SO WHAT?
The “so what?” question for today is:  How do these words written so long ago about the Advent of the Christ-child change me and bring to me the hope I need?

Zechariah was not prepared for the Advent of Christmas because he did not believe God could step into his life and answer his long-forgotten prayers. But God.  But God did in ways old Zech had never dreamed. I wonder if some of us here today are secretly disappointed with God, but afraid to admit it. Like old Zechariah, we just do what we are supposed to do, never really believing that God is at work to bless us in ways that would totally overwhelm us and silence us. As always, put yourself into this story and don’t just put yourself into it in one character–but into as many as you can think of: Zechariah, Elizabeth, the other 17,999 priests who serve in the temple, the neighbors, the family. What can you learn this week from the first Advent candle of hope? I have a good acronym for HOPE: Heaven’s One Promise–Eternity, Emmanuel. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your one hope, your one promise? Emmanuel, God with us? I do.  I believe it with all of my heart, mind, soul.

Many of you know that this year has been hard on so many. With the quarantines, lockdowns, shut-downs and Covid-19 infecting so many of us. We have members of our church who have lost loved ones during this time.  Some have not had the opportunity to celebrate the lives of their loved ones with a memorial service because of the quarantine.  I have lost my mother-in-law, my brother and my dad this year.  My wife and I have been taking care of my 88-year-old father-in-law who has severe dementia.  We have been caring for him for 24/7 for the past 10 months.  There are times when hope seems to be elusive–even to me, an ordained pastor of 22 years and a youth pastor for another 15 years before that and 3 years of seminary where God answered my prayers almost daily with blessings through others in our community.

As I was flying home from Illinois this past week after we celebrated my dad’s life, I spent some time looking out the airplane window and reflecting and my life.  I grieve the loss of my dad and the time we had together. I am so thankful for my stepmom, mama Sue, who loved my dad into heaven. As Christians, we have a hope that will never disappoint us.  We have a hope that will sustain us through hard times, hard times exactly like Covid-19.  We have a hope that conquerors death. We have the hope and the power of the resurrection. Don’t just glance by and not see the wonder of HOPE. Yes, Christ came to earth as a helpless baby but don’t miss that Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb of death. HE IS RISEN! Talk about HOPE!

God has a way of sending signals of hope to remind us that life is stronger than death. Light is more powerful than dark. God is more powerful than Satan. Good will overcome evil. Joy is stronger than disappointment.  Hope is answered prayer—no matter how long it takes. This is the message of the first Advent candle of Christmas: just as God meticulously prepared the way for Jesus to be born, God is painstakingly at work in each of our lives—preparing our hearts, and minds, and souls for Christ’s arrival. And–not just once but Christmas comes every year. Christmas is time to marvel at the wonder of HOPE. Advent is a time to prepare. Week one of Advent:  am I prepared? Do I believe that God is at work—answering our prayers–in ways I cannot imagine?  Do I dare to trust God enough–to take away my defects, disgrace, and my disappointment? It’s been a dark year for me but hear me when I say: I HAVE HOPE!

But the angel said to (your name here), “Do not be afraid, (your name here), for your prayer has been heard.”

What prayer is it that you need to be heard? Don’t be afraid. PRAY IT! God hears you.

·     From faithful to fearful to faithless to favored.

·       Am I open to God answering my prayer in ways I have never dreamed of?

·       Am I prepared for Christmas?

This week spend some time reading the gospel story of Christ’s birth in Luke.  Tell God where you need a blessing in your life. Pray.  Maybe you need to feel forgiven.  Every night at about 7 pm, I walk my father-of-love down the hallway to his bedroom. Every night as we make that trip he says, “Thank you, David, for teaching me about forgiveness. I can forgive others because I’ve been forgiven.” Every year Christmas comes on December 25. Every year we have a STOP/GAP opportunity to STOP and take a serious look at our lives. I’m praying this is a simply divine year of Christmas for you.

Let us pray:
O God of HOPE, you come into our lives in such amazing ways.  We ask and pray that You will come again this Advent season.  Come and fill the hopeless situations in our lives with hope, touch the hurting parts of our life with Your healing presence.  Remove our disgrace.  Answer our prayers.  Bless us, O God of Hope.  Prepare in each of us, a heart with room to spare for the birth of the Christ child, the living Savior come into our world to redeem, restore, and reconcile—do this in me this Advent Season.  In the precious name of Jesus, I pray. And, just like Zechariah, let me know you hear my prayer! Amen.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com