When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."- Luke 14:15

Billy Graham is quoted for having said:“My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.”  Heaven is God’s Kingdom, and our home.

If you are a follower of Christ, you can look forward to an eternity spent with God in Heaven. In heaven there will be fellowship with God, and celebration (Luke 13:29, Matthew 8:11).

During December I generally don’t buy anything but groceries. I know Christmas is right around the corner, and so I’m likely to be blessed by gifts from friends and family.

My family doesn’t remind me daily that they’ve gotten me a gift, and I don’t need to see wrapped presents to reassure myself. I know that they love me, and I can count on those gifts. Yes I’m very spoiled.

Small children often have that same confidence. They know that their parents are going to get them gifts, the thought of questioning that reality never crosses their minds.

The beautiful, wonderful, exciting, shout-it-from-the-rooftops truth is that you are a resident of Heaven. God has promised you eternal fellowship in heaven, where everything will be new (Isaiah 65:17). Jesus purchased your visa with his life.

Live like a resident of heaven. Live in the confidence that you will spend eternity with God. Live like nothing on earth will last (1 John 2;17), including all your resources (2 Peter 3:10), and even your body (1 Peter 1:24). Live knowing this life is like a vapor compared to your eternal fellowship (James 4:14).

In anticipation of New Years, consider making a Vision Board for 2019 (Here’s a template for structured Christian Vision Board). This is a fun activity for Children and adults. Make your Vision Board with Luke 14:15 in mind. What can you aim for this year that will challenge you to live in faith and trust?

Written by: Mary Weinstein

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. - Matthew 5:4

God is not intent on us suffering, he came to liberate us from suffering and death. But we are in a world which is subject to the results of sin: death and suffering. Christians and non-Christians alike both experience the love of God, and the results of sin in our world (Matthew 5:45).

God understands the turmoil and pain of our sinful world, and has experienced it personally (Hebrews 4:15). His understanding of sin, its consequences, and his love for us is the impetus for him humbling himself, and being born as one of us. Christmas is so much richer a season if you can grasp the sacrifice and scope of Jesus humbling himself to be human.

God is a uplifter. He lowers himself so we can be lifted up (1 Peter 5:6-7). Jesus humbled himself to become man so we might be liberated from the burden of sin.

If you are low (depressed, lonely, anxious, mourning) God promises he will lift you up (James 4:10). Scripture shows us again and again that God cares for the poor, disenfranchised, and oppressed (Proverbs 3:34).

Confession: sometimes I’ll watch a sad movie, or song with the specific intent of making myself cry. Not because I’m sad necessarily, but because the act of crying can be cathartic. Sometimes you just need a good cry.

So if you are sad, lonely, depressed, stressed, or oppressed today: be just that. Thank God for his promise that he is for you, and will lift you up. Know that this season is not permanent, and trust in the joy that is coming (Psalm 30).

If you’re not in a mourning season: remember that the Christmas season is a tough one for many of your friends and neighbors. Pray about how you can love your friends, neighbors, or a stranger this Christmas who may be suffering.

Gift your friends and neighbors Snack Mix ornaments this Christmas. 

Written by: Mary Weinstein

But godliness with contentment is great gain. - 1 Timothy 6:6

Paul writes the above counsel to Timothy (his student, and a young leader in the Church) while in prison. He’s writing from prison, but he is someone who also experienced great authority and prosperity in his life (Philippians 4:12-13).

He’s not counseling Timothy to live a life a life of poverty, but to be a good steward of what he has. To work to improve on what he has been given, and to be a good example for other Christians (1 Timothy 4:8-16).

Be a Better Steward
In Jesus’s parable about stewardship (Luke 19:11-17), he notes that not everyone is given the same amount of gifts. Each of the servants is given a different amount of money in this parable. Yet they are all held to Jesus’s standard of producing more with what they have.

Contentment isn’t necessarily being ok with having less- but cultivating what you have to become more in order to glorify God.

What skills and resources do you have? And more importantly, how are you using them to bless others? Can you carry a tune? Consider volunteering to sing to the elderly. Do you have a snow plow? Use it to bless a neighbor with a clear driveway this winter.

Be an Example
Contentment is a gift that requires growth. Consider patience- God doesn’t wave a wand over your head annnd- poof! More patient! He allows you to experience situations which stretch your patience, so you grow. You do not magically become more content by choosing to do so, and God is unlikely to gift you with contentment in one swoop.

Contentment is something acquired by practicing. Consider God’s statutes and be an example of someone who strives to live them out:

• Study the Bible as a template for how to live (2 Timothy 3:16).
• Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you daily in your interactions, thoughts and words.
• And do all these things with the knowledge that you are not doing them through your own strength (Hebrews 13:5).

As you are Christmas shopping, consider teaching your children, nieces/nephews about contentment and thankfulness with the Four Gift Rule (something they Want, something they Need, something to Wear, something to Read).

Written by: Mary Weinstein

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.- Luke 2:40
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It’s hard to “get” wisdom without understanding the concept of “shalom.” The Hebrew word for peace, “shalom” signifies more than the absence of conflict: it is the blessed condition in which everything reflects God’s right ordering. Shalom was fractured at the Fall when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and polluted our race with sin. Shalom was fractured then, but it was not demolished. We live, as it were, in its ruins.

And wisdom is the skill required by those who would take up the cause of Shalom, who would be “Peacemakers.”

And Christmas is a time for taking up the cause of Shalom, for remembering that Jesus came not to make us comfortable in a stable, but to deputize us in the project of making the stable into a temple. It takes a great deal of wisdom to see the outline of shalom through the debris of our sadly fallen world, and a great deal of wisdom to start taking those steps that make shalom more of a reality for our homes and our communities.

But don’t despair: stocking your Christmas pantry with five pound bags of wisdom won’t bust your budget. God has promised to give wisdom “generously to all, without finding fault,” if only we ask Him. So ask Him!
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Mix up your own mulling spices for hot cider. It’s hard to believe that something as wonderful as hot apple cider could be improved upon, but mulling spices are like pure Christmas magic. Experiment with ingredients and proportions to suit your preferences, but consider including cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, star anise, dried cranberries, orange peel and anything else that would be the right kind of warm and spicy. And mixed together in a mason jar the mulling spices are as lovely as they are delicious.

Written by: Joel Tate

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.- Luke 2:10

How Can I be More Joyful?
1. Stop Being Afraid
Struggling to experience joy in your life? The first step to joy (or happiness) is removing fear. Like many gifts from God, joy requires a paradigm shift. We inherently are fearful, but fellowship with God is an understanding that he is for us. Basically, he’s got this (John 14:27, Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 43:1). Remember to fight your battles with an understanding of God’s power and influence in your life.

2. Start Sharing
God’s joy is for everyone. The angel doesn’t say ‘good news that will cause great joy for Christians’, but for everyone. All people. God’s desire is for all people to experience him. Jesus is his free gift for all people. You can choose to not receive it, but its freely given.

In a podcast interview for Desiring God, Randy Alcorn notes the following:
“...But even the atheist when he takes a walk in the woods, sees the beauty, and just marvels at it — and he may in his own way celebrate the beauty and see a deer and just marvel at this — the happiness he is experiencing is coming from the hand of God. The fact that people don’t believe in God doesn’t change the fact that God is the only source of happiness. Tragically, however, if he dies in his atheism and he goes to hell, hell is the one place in the universe where God is not present, except in his wrath. And, as a result, he is cut off from happiness. No God, no happiness...”

All good things come from God, happiness included. We cannot create our own happiness, but God gives it generously. He has an unlimited storehouse he wants to give us. He also promises that the more we give, the more we will receive (Luke 6:38).

Did you ever try and catch an insect as a child? The delight of capturing that butterfly is quickly snuffed when the creature cannot live in a jar for more than a day. Joy is the same. God created it for all his children to enjoy.

Practical Ways to Spread Joy
Feeling joyful today? Let it pour out of you towards those around you!

• Smile
• Hug someone
• Buy someone a coffee
• Let someone cut you in traffic
• Call someone who can be chatty and listen patiently
• Visit someone in a nursing home
• Tip well
• Invite a neighbor over for dinner
• Play in the snow with your kids

Feeling a bit stir-crazy with the kids home for Christmas? Check out some of these Children’s crafts for Christmas.

​Written by: Mary Weinstein

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. - Romans 13:11

Are you a morning person? Do you need an alarm clock to wake up or are you one of those people who instinctively wakes up shortly before the alarm clock?

The early morning hours are my favorite time of the day.  I love being awake before everyone else, having the first cup of coffee, going to the gym, and having my devotional time in peace.

Though not everyone is a morning person like me, this passage is calling all of us to wake up! Now is the time to wake up from our spiritual slumber.  Whether you’re a seasoned believer or you have just given your life to Jesus, there is lots of work for us to do. Is there a conversation you’ve put off having? Forgiveness that needs to be taken care of? Or are you waiting for the opportune moment to step out and do something with your faith? Don’t wait any longer, the time is now!

We have so many things begging for our attention throughout the day;  they can be wholesome or they are not. Our lives are either going to be controlled by our flesh or by the Holy Spirit.  

I pray that in this Christmas season is a wake up call for us. We have so much to look forward to, the day of the Lord is at hand.  

Recipe:
Christmas Coffee
4 cups of coffee: about ½ cup ground coffee
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Add your choice of some or all of the listed spices with the coffee grounds; mix well. Start percolating or pour hot water over if using a drip or french press.

​Written by: Abigail Elliott

Ecclesiastes 7:10 “Do not say ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions. -Ecclesiastes 7:10

The word “nostalgia” is a combination of two Greek words, the one signifying a return to home, and the other signifying pain. It’s strange, but there is something sweet about the pain we feel when, through the power of recollection, we return home to an irretrievable past.

And at no other season is the pull of nostalgia so strong as at Christmas when our hearts ache for the vivid and deeply felt experience of our adolescence. But the Teacher in Ecclesiastes warns us against indulging in nostalgia, warns us against the false comfort of false recollections. The truth is that our memories are unreliable and that our penchant for nostalgia gives the past an undeserved place in our present, from which it threatens to obscure our future.

And God has ordained for us a coming glory that will so outshine our previous experience that we will be embarrassed that we ever invited the moon of our past to eclipse the sun of God’s good future.

And yet, for all that, the past has a modest place in our Christmas pantry. If you run some yarn through a popped kernel of corn it’s just that: a threaded piece of food growing staler by the moment. But when it is taking its place on a long string of threaded popcorn it is something more: it’s contributing to the garland that might justifiably adorn the loveliest tree. Each annual celebration of the incarnation is a further extension of the garland with which the church adorns the ages until the first advent is lost in the second when the Jesus who came proves himself to be the Jesus who returns.

Keep in your Christmas pantry a pinch of the past, enough to whet your appetite for the sure and certain future.

Speaking of garlands: Consider making one from popcorn and cranberries and either hanging it inside your home or perhaps on a tree in your lawn where you can enjoy watching the birds making a meal of it. All you need is the popcorn, cranberries, a needle and some string.

​Written by: Joel Tate

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
- Romans 8:18

This verse reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Hillsong Worship: New Wine. In the crushing and pressing, the vintner is taking something and turning it into something much greater. It is a time-consuming process but the celebration follows!

If you’ve ever tried wine grapes you know they are pretty sour. Life hands us some pretty sour grapes and then we feel squeezed and pressed from all sides.  It can be difficult to see how our current sufferings can be beneficial. Yet, if we look back to scripture, we see James 1:2 saying, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

And then Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:13, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you many also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. These passages make us a bit uncomfortable but should also provide some comfort. Jesus suffered the ultimate pain for us by taking our sin to the cross with him. He did that for you.

This passage from Romans says give God your heart so that in the crushing and in the pressing he can make new wine out of you. Instead of mulling over the hurt and pouting about our situation, let us be a people that responds with thanksgiving for in time we will be restored to glory.

If you have not heard the Hillsong Worship song, check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ozGKlOzEVc

Recipe:
Concord Grape pie

• 1 recipe or your favorite pie crust doubled prepared
• 1 1/2 lbs of Concord grapes (after removing from stems)
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (6.0 oz) sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened​

Instructions

• On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 half of a double crust pie dough into a 15-inch round. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate, pressing it into the edges. Trim to a 1-inch overhang all around. Cover with plastic wrap; chill pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes. Repeat process for rolling out dough for the top crust. Transfer to a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the pie.
• Wash grapes and discard any that are under-ripe, damaged and blemished.
• Remove the skins from the grapes by pressing them between your thumb and forefinger. Put the skinless grapes in a medium saucepan. Reserve the skins in a small bowl.
• Gently mash the grape pulp in the medium saucepan to release their juice. Cook over medium low heat until grapes come to a full boil, and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Press the grapes through a fine sieve and discard the pits.
• In a heavy bottomed pot: combine the grape pulp, grape peels and all the remaining ingredients . (You’ll have about 1 1/3 cups of pulp – add everything else and you’ll have about 2 cups) Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring continually until the filling is slightly thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the bottom third of the oven with a pizza stone or baking sheet on it.
• Transfer the cooked filling to the prepared pie shell. Moisten the edges of the pie crust with water and attach the top crust, crimping the edges to seal the crust.
• Cut six small slits in the crust to act as vents. Place pie on the pizza stone, protect the edges with a pie ring, and bake for 30 minutes at 400° F and then reduce heat to 375° F and bake an additional 25-30 minutes until the filling is bubbling. Cool on a wire rack for at least 3 hours before cutting.​

Written by: Abigail Elliott

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.- Luke 2:19

Are you the type of person that likes to read the same couple of books over and over again or are you a once and done type of person? Are you someone who is boisterous in your expression or are you reserved and prefer to stand back to take everything in?

These questions are related, but more on that in a moment.  

We have become a culture that is afraid of the quietness. We thrive with our schedules, our coffee dates, and making sure we upload our #motivationalmonday pictures.  We shy away from quiet moments of prayer and devotions and look for a podcast or some worship music instead. While each of these things are great and can be beneficial, spiritual growth happens in the quiet time with our Bibles.  

Figure this, the pastor gets the most out of the sermon because they have been pondering the sermon text privately all week; the small group leader benefits most from the content because they’ve been preparing to bless people. We learn best when we delve into the text or content.

Mary was a thinker. When the angel came to her to tell her she was with child she responded by being quiet in spirit; when the shepherds came to her exclaiming everything the angels had said, she did not respond by saying, that’s old news I was told nine months ago that all of this was going to happen.  Instead, she treasured everything in her heart.
Whether you are hearing the Christmas story for the first time or the 100th time, may we slow down, read the Bible with intention, and ponder everything in our hearts like Mary.

Take some time to prep some chili and while it’s cooking be intentional about how you use your time.
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Recipe: Vegetarian Chili

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 (15.5 ounces) cans black beans, rinsed & drained
• 1 (16 ounces) can pinto beans, rinsed & drained
• 1 (16 ounces) can kidney beans, rinsed & drained
• 1 (14.5 ounces) can of diced tomatoes
• 2.5 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cocoa powder
• Brown sugar/maple syrup to sweeten to taste

 

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic sauté until they soften but don’t brown about five minutes.
2. Add the peppers and sauté until lightly browned and tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Set your slow cooker to low. Add the beans, vegetables, diced tomatoes, spices, cocoa powder and, sweetener. Stir to combine and cover. Cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours.

Written by: Abigail Elliott