Our Blog

Filter By:
in Students, Newsletter

Student Ministry - December 2020

main image

Dear Church Family,

Christmas time is here. It is the time of year when we are supposed to experience happiness and cheer. One of my favorite Christmas movies is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I grew up with this movie as a staple of the Christmas season. It seemed like Christmas had not been celebrated properly if we neglected to watch it together as a family. It is one of the few movies that perfectly captures the dilemma of Christmas time but then delivers the only answer that satisfies the problem.

The premise of the movie is that Christmas is the best time of the year, but for Charlie Brown, it often felt like the worst time of year. He knew he was supposed to feel something amazing, but none of the Christmas traditions were doing it for him. His exchange with his best pal Linus goes like this:

I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards... ...and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed. Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know... ...who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in   the world, you're the Charlie Browniest.

But Linus is wrong. Many people feel exactly the way Charlie Brown felt at Christmas time. And while Linus was less than helpful in this conversation, he ends up having the answer all along. Here is another exchange between the two:

I guess you were right, Linus. I shouldn't have picked this little tree. Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don't know what Christmas is all about. Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field... ...keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them... ...and the glory of the Lord shone round about them... ...and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them: "Fear not, for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy... ...which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior... ...which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel... ...a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace, goodwill toward men." That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Linus knew that Christmas is about the King of Glory stepping down into His creation that was marred by sin, so He could bring peace and goodwill from God to man. And this little kids’ movie captures the need for that same message today. So, when you encounter people who are struggling to find joy, let us give them the same message that Linus gave Charlie Brown. That is that Jesus came to save us. Because of His life, death, and resurrection, we know that “everything sad is going to come untrue.” It is this message that truly brings great joy.

Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren

 

Posted by Brian Van Doren with
in Newsletter, Worship

Worship - December 2020

main image

“‘Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel,' which translated means, ‘God with us.’” Matthew 1:23.

God with us.  It’s a very common phrase that seems to pop up everywhere each December, and with good reason.  But this Christmas season, we are going to be focusing on how this reality has been at play since the dawn of creation, and will continue to shape our reality for all of eternity.  God’s habitation with us is not limited to the thirty-some-odd years when Jesus Physically walked the earth.  His incarnation was simply the turning point in God’s relationship with us.  The dwelling presence of God with His creation is in fact the purpose and goal of creation.  It is the very reason why we exist.  And that is what we as a church are going to be focusing on this season.  Perhaps this is a little bit of a spoiler, but the way I see it, the more we meditate on and celebrate these truths the better.

God’s presence with mankind is apparent from the beginning of creation.  In Genesis 3:8, we see that in the cool of the day God would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden.  Unfortunately, Adam and Eve exchanged the presence of God for death and eternal separation from Him because they wanted to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil.  They went from being the living tabernacles of God to being cursed and cast out of His presence.  Yet even in pronouncing judgment on Adam and Eve and the Serpent, God also declared words of hope.  Speaking to the serpent God said in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Fast forwarding many, many years, God had promised Abraham that through his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and that his son Isaac would become a great nation.  For over 400 years that great nation was enslaved in Egypt, but God delivered Israel and led them out of their bondage.  In establishing His Tabernacle (dwelling) with them, God told them in Exodus 29:45-46, “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.  And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”  God had supernaturally delivered this people in order that He might dwell in their presence and be worshipped by them.

Fast forwarding again, and we see that generation after generation turned away from God and chose instead to worship idols.  God had brought this nation out of Egypt in order to make his presence dwell among them, and repeatedly they demonstrated that they wanted nothing to do with Him.  But God still was not done.  Through the prophet Isaiah God spoke the words which would be repeated in Matthew 1, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”  Over 700 years later the apostle John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1, 14).  This was the turning point in the story of God’s presence with His people.  No longer is our relationship with God dependent on our ability to keep His covenant.  This is because Jesus, the God-Man with us, has kept the covenant perfectly on our behalf.

As previously stated, however, this is not the culmination of God’s presence with us.  It is the miraculous turning point that establishes God’s dwelling place with His people for all of eternity.  In Revelation 21 God reveals to the apostle John a vision of the new and eternal heaven and earth that are to come.  John writes in verse 3, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”  This is the eternal purpose of creation: to be the stage upon which God’s presence is displayed in the midst of His people.  For all eternity we will be His living Tabernacles, and we will worship Him, just as He has created and redeemed us to do.  This is what we are remembering, celebrating, and looking forward to this Christmas season.

May God bless you, and keep you, and cause His face to shine upon you this Christmas season.  And may you remember that God is indeed with us.

Posted by Derek Niffenegger with

12...111112113114115116117118119120 ... 357358