I don't know about everybody else, but sometimes when Christmas finally arrives it feels to me like the whole year has reached it's peak.  Christmas is all about God's gift of Jesus providing for us the "sign" of Emmanuel, which means "God is with us".  What a wonderful thought!  Our sermon series during the weeks leading to Christmas has been, "The Wait" and God-with-us is what so many of us have been waiting for.  It's what I am waiting for when experiencing the ups and downs of life.  It's what the people I spend time with are waiting for as they experience medical struggles or other life-experiences that create in us a God-sized empty place that can only be healed with God's own gift of God-with-us.  The assurance of our faith is that even when we feel alone, we are never alone.  Even when we experience death or loss, death is not the end.  Even when we are searching, we are also being searched after by our God who comes to earth as one of us, so that no matter how we are waiting, we are never waiting alone.  Christ is born.  God is with us.   And may our Savior be born in our hearts over and over again.  

The waiting is almost over.  Mary and Joseph are arriving in Bethlehem.  The Shepherds are out in the fields with their flocks though with no expectation that they'll be part of the greatest birth story ever told.  The angles of heaven may be quivering with excitement as they await their assignment to spread the word and announce the holy birth.  A new star is about to be born in the cosmos.  The waiting is almost over.  Everything will soon be different!  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is coming to earth in a powerful, new way.  That's Advent... it's what we're waiting for!  How are things going when it comes to what you are waiting for in your life today?  May the gift of God-with-us help us no matter how we're waiting.  

"Are we there yet?" is a question parents (and grandparents, among others) may find exhausting if our little ones keep asking during a long car ride.  Well, we're not "there" yet when it comes to our Advent journey.  But we're nearly there.  Our waiting season connects to a cosmic wait this Sunday as we remember the promise of Jesus' 2nd coming.  This too is an Advent matter and one that looks to the future rather than only to the birth of our Savior those centuries in the past.  The call is to prepare and get ready.  The mark of faithfulness is to live a life that is always ready for the coming of the Lord.  We may all have questions about the end times and our Lord's return.  There can be lots of things we do not understand.  And there is also much we understand full well.  

We’ve begun an amazing journey.  Last Sunday, our children helped us pay attention to some of the things that are part of many journeys.  “Waiting” is one of those dynamics.  And we’ve already discovered that most of us would (given the choice) rather not wait.  But sometimes in life, we just have to.  What kinds of things have you experienced that made you wait?  That is an Advent question.  Advent season happens over the four weeks leading to Christmas Eve and the word “advent” means “coming”.  We keep focused on what it means to wait and prepare for the coming of God into the world through the birth of Jesus.  What helps you when you have to wait? 

The weeks leading to Christmas might sometimes seem like a long wait.  For some of us, it's been a long wait already as we've counted the months leading to cherished church and family traditions.  A season that just naturally includes some of our best memories along with very possibly the inclination to try and re-create them.  Our sermon series over the coming weeks will invite us to reconnect to the many ways the story of Jesus' birth includes the dynamic of waiting.  Mary and Joseph waited through a long and difficult journey to Bethlehem.  The shepherds may have waited their whole lives to encounter God as they did on the night of the Savior's birth.  The magi from the East experienced their own wait.  Possibly we might most of all identify with the world-wide waiting for God to come with the gift of salvation.  That's a lot of waiting.  

I wonder if people in those ancient days, and in our own days, would have ever expected that God coming to save us would mean God coming as one-of-us!  Do we ever truly understand what we are most of all waiting for?  I hope we all join together on the Sundays of worship throughout December as we wait for what only God can do.  

We've been counting blessings lately.  And this coming Sunday is the week before our national day of Thanksgiving.  For once, the world around us and the life of faith are in much agreement!  Have you been counting the blessings of your life, and if so, have you been surprised by how high your count is?  I have.  And I've found that just the practice of being thankful touches something in my heart and is making a difference in my life.  What if that is truly how God is changing the world... through our hearts, through our lives, through our thankfulness.

As it's put in the famous worship song from the ancient world "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.  Give thanks to him, bless his name.  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." That's from Psalm 100.  I'm hoping for everyone to enter God's gates (at 80 N. Market St., Lithopolis, Ohio) and to celebrate and reconnect to what it means that God is faithful to this and to all generations!  How can we resist giving thanks?

I don't know about you, but I often need to be reminded of something that can be absolutely counter-intuitive.  I'm talking about counting blessings.  Sometimes, at the end of the day, I try to look back and find things for which to thank God.  Things that took place.  Something I saw or heard from someone else.  Anything.  My experience with this is often very similar to most of the times I try and do it.  As I look back on the day, usually my first thoughts are of my struggles.  The things I'm not really thankful for at all.  The frustrations of the day, or any sense of failure on my part when it comes to achieving something.  Those are usually the first things that come to mind as I look back at the day.  Then, when I intentionally look for something for which to thank God, I'm often surprised.  Surprised because those things are there. Sometimes the blessing-to-count list begins with something like, "well I'm thankful that I only said that one thing that came out so wrong, when I could have said lots of things I regret".  And then, somehow, the flood gates open, and more and more things to truly thank God about seem to invade my thoughts and feelings, my mind and heart.  And the stresses seem to decrease.  And a sense of peace seems to return.  No wonder the apostle Paul spent so much time thanking God for all sorts of things and people he's known and loved.  And that's when he describes things like a "peace which passes understanding".  Oftentimes, he described that kind of experience while writing from prison.  I'm not making that up.  Our "#blessings" series continues this Sunday and I'm going to share about some of the things I'm most thankful for as I look over some years of ministry and sharing life with people of various churches. We'll re-connect to the apostle Paul's 2nd letter to his church in Corinth.  This is a season for giving thanks and yet we live in a world where counting blessings is often far from the norm.  Let's open our hearts in worship of God and count blessings and share a blessing with others.  

Is it a good thing to count blessings and be thankful?  We believe it is and the Bible says so too.  It may not always be easy to stop and count blessings, but it will always be helpful.  As a national Thanksgiving observance will soon be upon us, our sermon series beginning this Sunday is #blessed.  Even in the midst of hardship, there are still blessings to count.  And in large and small ways both, God is changing the world through how we “say” and “do” thank you.  I want to be part of that!  And I hope you do too. 

What if I told you there's a little known secret to generosity that can make a spiritual, emotional, psychological and relational difference in our lives?  How about if it also made a community and world difference?  What if the difference it makes even tapped into the creative power of God?  And here's one more, what if the difference being made turns our feelings about having hardly enough of what's needed, into a life that is filled to overflowing?  One of the most important stories ever told about Jesus describes the miracle of when thousands of people were fed with nothing more than what people already had... actually the people were over-fed.

When we asked the church about how they’d complete the sentence: “I used to think I’d be happy if I only had ___” we had no idea about the answers that would come back.  But we felt certain that a focus on what we “had to have” to be truly happy would bring up priorities and learnings about life and faith and the things in our hearts that matter most of all.  And we were not disappointed!  I personally wondered if many people from the church would even respond to our “crowd sourcing” question.  But you did and your own considerations and self awareness has been an inspiration as Alex and I have been praying about our sermon series “If I Only Had...”. Even eternal life comes up as a would-be follower of Jesus asks about what was required for that!  Talk about the things in our hearts (and lives) that matter most of all!  Hear some of what Jesus had to say about what truly matters, and what it looks like to live that way (his way).