GODS TIMELESS GRACE FOR THE LONG JOURNEY OF LIFE - We can often long for a divine hug, an embrace from God's presence but as we grow in Christ, God reveals His love more creatively and constructively, He longs to shape more than He longs just to sooth. When the feelings fleet from when you were first saved in Christ, you may not be backsliding, you may just be growing up in Him.

CHRISTMAS GLORY IN A SELFIE WORLD - Christmas Eve study in the book of John.

THE CHRISTIAN SALT AND LIGHT COMPANY - The Christian isn't to take into his own hands what God has said is His job alone. The Christian doesn't ignore wrong doing, pretending it doesn't exist. Rather, he has the faith to understand and trust that God is ultimately in control, that all wrongs will be noted and justly dealt with. Here is the important principle - every act of personal vengeance is an act of unbelief. The Christian can rely on the sovereign justice of almighty God because God doesn't ignore the sins committed by anyone in this life.

CHRISTMAS GLORY IN A SELFIE WORLD - Christmas is more deeply glorious than any amount of decorating can portray. Here’s how to capture it and keep it all year long. First, treasure pleasing Christ more than you treasure pleasing anyone else. Second, so fill your mind with His glory that you become continually disenchanted with the accumulation of wealth. And third, never settle for earthly security that can’t outlast the grave when Christ offers eternal consolation to those who follow Him.

CHRISTMAS GLORY IN A SELFIE WORLD - When we willingly and persistently tether our minds to so much uninterrupted light thinking we won’t see the glory of Christmas because Christmas glory is about God and what He has done. Christmas glory is about the deepest truth and the most real, eternal lasting world and it slices across this selfie age. John unfolds two manifestations of Christmas glory that brighten our present lives as we cling to Christ Jesus.

CHRISTMAS GLORY IN A SELFIE WORLD - God’s promise - God’s truthfulness - God’s faithfulness to keep His word - is never to be measured by the limited horizon of our circumstances. God’s grace isn’t limited to our imagination. God’s word overrides dark circumstances. There is always this bigger picture with our promise-keeping God.

THE CHRISTIAN SALT AND LIGHT COMPANY - Jesus said the Christian may render to Caesar what is Caesar's. The proper distinction is found in remembering that the sermon on the mount deals with the personal life and conversation of the disciple while other passages of Scripture deal with the role of the believer in civic and government affairs.

JOHN: THE GOSPEL OF BELIEF - You are set apart on the assumption that the part of the world you engage will never know the truth - will never know Christ’s words - apart from you fulfilling your divine calling. Your life isn’t to be spent on your own ambitions any more than Christ had the option of eating the bread Satan offered Him in the wilderness. Keep your life on mission. Keep your life in Christ’s fullest joy.

THE CHRISTIAN SALT AND LIGHT COMPANY - Every time God forgives, He forgives fully. Divorce, while stemming from sin, is not the unpardonable sin. The Bible says God forgets my sins when they’re forgiven through Christ Jesus. I know of no Scriptural reason for the church to spiritually demote those who have been through a divorce. God help us to both obey like Jesus even when obedience is costly or seems totally impossible and also forgive like Jesus when it seems the weight of sin seems unbearable. We are constantly called to both.

JOHN: THE GOSPEL OF BELIEF - There's a reason we take time to study and learn the truths of God's Word. To receive and learn is to be sent. And just as Jesus came with bold words of revealed truth He sends us out with those same words. This world needs our words just as much as it needs our love. In fact, in every reference in our text about going out into the world Jesus only refers to His words and His truth as the thing we need to know and proclaim.