Revelations 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. I have often said that if God does not seem real to you; if you can’t see him working in your life; then you probably have not been real with him. This book, the Bible, is a Love story and it is not without its share of passion and drama...and like it or not; you are one of the main characters in it! You are part of the Church; the Bride of Christ. We should be desperately trying to know the heart and mind of Christ just as any bride would her groom before the wedding day. A marriage is not a casual event and we should not be entering into it lightly. We should be passionate. We should be Real! We should be real angry when God is mocked; real Sad at the things that break his heart and real joyful when he is glorified. We should be real; real hungry for His Word and real thirsty for His presence; real obedient to his commands and real willing to follow Him. I can go on, but you get the point; Being real; this is what it means to be Hot or Cold. I don’t know what your 2014 was like…..but, looking back, I know I could have been more real. I could have spent more time with him in Word and in Prayer and less time watching TV programs that do nothing to further the kingdom of God.. I am sure that sometimes God feels like He is taken for granted by me and maybe I have take advantage of His patience and grace. 2014 certainly had its “luke warm” moments from me. So here we are, on the precipice of 2015. We can reflect back on the things that stood between us and a more meaningful relationship with God. …..And we can decide today to make some real changes moving forward into the new year. We have done well to put Christ back into Christmas, but let’s also put Christ back on the throne of our hearts; let’s reestablish His Kingship over our lives.Let’s be Real to Him in 2015 and experience His real transforming power. Dear Father in Heaven; Thank you for your Son Jesus. Help us to follow Him. Amen 1 John 16……….... God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17-By this, is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. This time of year, countless people embark on their annual quest to create the perfect Christmas. They search out the perfect Christmas tree with the perfect ornaments and perfect decorations to match. They try to hang up the perfect Christmas lights outside and the perfect Christmas wreath for the front door. They search for perfect gifts for their loved ones then force them to pose for the perfect Christmas post card…..finally giving way to an attempt to serve the perfect Christmas dinner. These people search in vain. There was and ever will be only one perfect Christmas;.... the first one. When a perfect God….sent His perfect Son to be the perfect Lamb that would become the perfect Sacrifice for our inability to keep His perfect law; a perfect plan designed to fulfill His perfect will. We can participate in that perfect Christmas even unto this very day by accepting His perfect gift and entering into His perfect Love. This is what makes that perfect Christmas so perfectly complete. Dear Heavenly Father; Thank you for your perfect Love embodied in your perfect Son. Help us to be more like Him. Amen James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Billy’s mom gives Billy $20.00 and sends him off to “Santa’s Workshop” to pick out a gift to give to her. This scene is played out around the world as we near Christmas. Tens of thousands of eager kids are given money from their parents so they might also experience the joy of giving gifts to their loved ones. Occasionally, you will have a child who is “Giving Challenged”. They enter Santa’s Workshop and are tempted to buy a gift more pleasing to themselves than to whom the gift is purposed. Isn’t this truly the nature of our existence here on Earth. We are first given life. We take possession of it even though we did not do anything to earn it and do with it what we will; but life is a gift with a purpose. Not our own; how we choose to spend it is of the utmost importance. We can be “Giving Challenged” and spend it on selfish pursuits or we can experience the Joy of presenting it back to the Lord as a pleasing offering. As we enter this season of giving, let us remember that God has given us everything. When we made a decision to follow Jesus; we are presenting Him with a gift He had already purchased with His own blood and in return; He lovingly gives us a greater gift ….an everlasting life with Him.. Dear Heavenly Father, Today we present ourselves as an offering. As we share in the cup and the loaf; let us remember that your Son’s sacrifice purchased us.We no longer belong to ourselves. Lord help transform our lives into a gift your Son will find pleasing. In your son’s name we pray. Amen Psalms Ch 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. I can remember as a child, before facebook, before twitter and all other social media, before the cable and internet as we know it today, before smart phones,ipods,laptopts, tablets and phablets and the myriad of technical gadgetry we have been introduced to over the last 30 yrs…..before all of this….kids used to go out and “play”. One of my favorite games was tag. The basic premise of this game was to run away from the person who was “It” and not get tagged. Prior to the start of the game; all the kids participating would decide on a base. As long as you made it back to “base”, you could not be tagged “It”. I always found it particularly exciting to slowly drift away from base and taunt the person who was “IT” into chasing me; being careful not to drift so far away from base that I would risk getting tagged. Most of the time, I was able to do this successfully. However, every now and then I would miscalculate the distance or the speed of the the person who was “IT” and get caught. It was a risky tactic wherein the slightest miscalculation or stumble would result in me being “It”. This can also describe my early Christian life. I wish I could say that from the moment I first believed that I embraced God and remained steadfast in love and in action. That simply would not be the truth. Instead, even though I found salvation in Jesus, I would drift away from Him from time to time always trying to keep Him just close enough that I could return to him if I needed to. One foot pointed toward base and one foot pointed toward “IT”, One foot in the light, one foot drifting into the darkness, one foot with Jesus and the other trying to tiptoe back into the world. If this describes where you are at today. Please take this opportunity to recommit your life to Christ. You will find it so much easier to follow him once you get both feet pointed towards him. Len Udell |