Feels like...

(I'm not complaining... I like it warm)

Feels like

 I’ve been listening to Christmas music during the workday pretty much since I returned after Thanksgiving, much more than usual this year. This is our third winter in the Southeast and let’s be frank… it doesn’t feel like Christmas. At least not the stereotypical vision of Christmas we’ve come to expect. The weather is warm, proliferate pine trees keep the landscape green and the chance of a white Christmas is infinitesimal.  So I’m pretty sure I’m compensating with music.

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

The first Christmas was nothing like our Hollywood stereotype either.  There were shepherds, angels, animals, a tired young couple and a baby.  No snow, no candles, no trees with lights, no cookies. It wasn’t the external factors that drove their joy. It was the simple fact that the Savior had been born.  If that was good enough for them perhaps it should be sufficient for us as well.

Joy to the world indeed!

Thanks for all you do.

Brian

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Volume 7, Number 30

Great to good

(it's like Coke and New Coke...sort of) 

Great to good

As a musician I enjoy listening to a wide array of musical genres. I especially appreciate groups or artists that are in the top tier of what they do. Sometimes a song that’s been a hit can jump from one style to another and take on a new and interesting life. However, interesting doesn’t always equate to better.  I have commented more than once that a particular Christian group has “the unique ability to take a great song and make it good”. If one had never heard the first recording the assessment might be different.  But when viewed in the context of the original, there is just no comparison.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19-20

When we view Christ as anything less than the fullness of God we run the risk of making our great God seem like merely a good God.  Putting God in a box that suits only our own needs diminishes the characteristics that might be the very thing those around us are longing for.  Our minds are incapable of fathoming the awesomeness of God…let’s not have our attempt to do so ruin another’s view of the original and amazing work.

Thanks for all you do.

Brian

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Volume 7, Number 18

Confidence

(be confident... not cocky)

Confidence

My wife and I attended a big time country music concert to kick off the summer season this year.  It's been a long time since we had been out to such an event and it really was a great time with a packed amphitheater and outstanding weather.  Not surprisingly there were many contrasts between the opening act and the headline performer.  The most fascinating was the difference in attitude.  The openers dressed edgier, had more outlandish hair and were more demonstrative in their stagecraft to try and connect with the audience. The headliner was completely different.  This group was confident and professional. The musicians dressed more conservatively, the singer was comfortable in his status as a hit maker and solos were played with an emphasis on the music and not the musician.  

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

How do the people we come into contact with in our Christian walk view us?  Are we edgy or demonstrative in ways that bring attention to ourselves?  Or are we comfortable in our relationship with God in a way that allows a focus on the Savior and not the saved.  Do we avoid the tough questions?  Or are we confident in the promise of grace to help us in the time of need? 

Be bold…be confident!

Thanks for all you do.

Brian

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Volume 7, Number 11