I’ve got some good news for you. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been that good this year. Jesus still came for you. The Christmas story is such a magnificent one—so full of tenderness and love. The young bride-to-be of Joseph knew that God was at work in her life. Her cousin Elizabeth knew too. When she greeted Mary, she spoke out with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb . . .” Mary answered Elizabeth with a song of joy, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden; for, behold, from hence forth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name . . .”

We would do well this day to spend a few moments with this charming young woman named Mary, wise beyond her years. Her experience of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection was the most intimate one of all. After all, she was his mother. If Mary were here with us this today, what are some lessons she might share with us, as the mother of God’s Messiah? I think the first lesson Mary would share with us is that God is working in the small things of the universe. That’s the message of Christmas, isn’t it? That God, the Almighty Creator of the universe, the Great I AM, set aside His own majesty and authority to be born as a tiny baby to a poor young couple. He could have come as a conquering warrior, a charismatic king, a commanding emperor. Instead, God came as a poor and helpless baby to show us that God loves us enough to enter our daily lives.

What an incredible gift! In the birth of Jesus, God wrapped Himself inside the unexpected. It is easy to miss the joy of Christmas because we are looking for the big moment, the big gift, the big pageantry of decorations and lights and flashy worship services. But the actual Christmas story is almost entirely composed of little, private moments of joy when God shared the message of the coming Messiah with humble, poor, nobodies like the shepherds, or Anna, the widow praying in the Temple. Or you and me. 

I think the second lesson Mary would share with us is God is working in difficult circumstances. And the third lesson Mary would share with us is God is working in everyone who opens their heart to Him. 

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

No matter what your Christmas preparations look like, I hope you experience the love, joy, hope and peace of God this Christmas season and all year. We all know in our hearts that there is no gift that can compare to the gift of knowing God. That’s why our Bible passage for Sunday is so relevant. It was written by a man who knew what it was like to have every form of success and comfort, and to lose it all. But he found Jesus Christ. And his writings are full of the love, joy, hope and peace of God that changed his life. 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 4-7, NIV)

 How did he do it? How did Paul live with joy and peace under such stressful circumstances? Verse 7 in our passage is one of the most popular benedictions, or blessings, in the church. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Then in verse nine, Paul inverts two of the important words in that benediction. Instead of saying “the peace of God”, he says, “And the God of peace will be with you.” I think we found our answer to the question of how Paul lived with joy and peace in the face of suffering and stress. I hope you find that same answer this Christmas season.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

During this season of Advent, you and I are preparing our hearts to celebrate Christ’s coming. We are buying our gifts, putting out our brightly colored lights, baking special treats for family and friends. The preparation and anticipation are part of the joy of Christmas. But are such preparations adequate? Considering John’s message, there are some other things we need to do if we are truly going to be ready for his coming. Sunday, we will learn what those things are.

Do you want this Christmas season to be like every other Christmas season? Do you ever look back a few days after Christmas with this vague feeling that you missed something important? That you expected something special to happen and it just didn’t? Maybe the problem is you didn’t expect anything from God. You didn’t prepare for a new life in Christ. It begins with repentance, turning back to God. It requires a commitment to right living. And it means receiving God’s grace and mercy. God is offering it. Now’s the time for you to decide if you are ready to find new life in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Are you ready for the Christ child to be born anew in your heart?

Serving with joy, 

Stephen

How do we prepare the way of the Lord? Misty Creek has been asking this question, not just during Advent, but since we began as a home church. The last several weeks we have been anticipating acquiring the chapel and the surrounding campus that we've met in for the last 2 years. Today, we celebrate what God has done and what He will continue to do as He channels His Holy Spirit through this this sacred space. We’ve engaged in an extensive visioning process as a new church plant. A critical question we’ve asked is this: Who lives in our community?

And now that we have our own worship space, God desires that we prepare this community for revival by delivering hope. Mary delivered hope to all of us with the birth of Christ. This Advent season we light the candles to remind us of that hope, peace, love, and joy are to be shared in some way. When we serve others, we provide hope to the ones we serve and to us as servants. Let us be beacons of hope, peace, love, and joy as we dash to comfort others this season.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

What are you worried about? If you are like most people, you are probably worried about your weight. Don’t you think it is ironic that right before Thanksgiving is when we are worried most about our weight. And then comes the eating extravaganza of the Christmas season (we have no chance). Our text for Sunday should begin like this: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear . . .”? Many of us would say, “Thank the Lord. He’s giving us permission to indulge . . . and not feel guilty.” Jesus begins this passage by saying don’t worry about what you eat and the thing they most worry about is our weight. Fortunately, our text is not on gluttony—but on worry which is a really a big issue in many people’s lives. 

The best preventive to worry is to focus your mind on giving thanks to God. Believe that you can trust God to handle any situation that you may confront and then relax. Do what God asks you to do; God will do more than you can ask Him to do. God’s resources are greater than your resources. Live your life in perpetual praise to God for God’s goodness, and fear and worry will melt away. Worry and trust cannot live in the same house.  When worry is allowed to come in one door, trust walks out the other door; and worry stays until trust is invited in again, whereupon worry walks out.” How true it is.  

Notice Jesus’ words in Sunday’s text: “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Do you see why we are not to worry? It is because we are valuable to God. Do you believe that you are valuable to God? The God who created the heavens and the earth and everything that exists upon it cares about you. What are you worried about? “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Then he adds a very practical admonition: “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” No, you can’t, but you can sure take many hours, days, months or even years off your life by indulging in an exercise that can poison every cell in your body. That’s worry.

Friends, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” That’s the primary reason to give thanks today. We are of value to God. He cares so much about us that he gave his beloved Son in our behalf. Don’t worry about a thing. Relax in the knowledge that God loves you. 

Grace and Peace,

Stephen

Ruth 1:1-18

Sunday we will hear the story of Jacob Deshazer. He was a Doolittle Raider and a bombardier in a B-25 bomber in WWII. In 1942, Jake was captured by the Japanese and remained a POW until the end of the war.  While in prison, he gave his life to Christ and his heart was filled with love and forgiveness for his Japanese captors.  After the war, Jake went back and spent several decades as a missionary to Japan where thousands of Japanese came to faith in Christ including the pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Jacob Deshazer, just like millions of other people around the world experienced PTSD and others Combat-related Moral Injury. Moral Injury is a term that originated about military combat exposure, when troops experience psychological distress as a result from actions, or lack of actions, that violate one’s moral-ethical code. Moral Injury has been confused with PTSD. “PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault.”  Psychotherapists are now saying that PTSD can happen from traumatizing relocation. One of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is that frontline healthcare workers are experiencing moral injury. I have witnessed this firsthand as a hospital and hospice chaplain. 

            Back in the late 1960s, two psychiatrists studied the records of more than 5,000 medical patients to determine if recent stressful events in their lives might have contributed to their illness. Out of this work, they created the Social Readjustment Stress Scale, a tool that ranks the 43 most stressful events the average person could face in life. “Death of a spouse” ranks number 1 on the list. “Change in living conditions” ranks number 28. And “Change in residence” ranks number 32 on the list. I think about this combination of stressful life events when I read our Bible story for this Sunday, the story of Naomi and Ruth. They suffered all these negative life events and more, you could say they experienced a form of PTSD and Moral Injury. If you’ve ever thought, “What has happened to my life? Will things ever feel normal again?” then our Bible story this Sunday is for you.

Stephen

November 7 is All Saints Sunday, we remember those who have served God on earth and now enjoy his company in heaven. This is not a day of sorrow, but a day of gladness, for we know that because Christ lives, we, two shall live with the company of all those who are part of the family of Christ. We remember the words of Paul when he instructed the church with these words, “brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:134-14).

Notice that Paul is not telling these believers that Christians do not grieve. Rather he is telling them not to grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. Many people who are trying to comfort someone experiencing grief say, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” I believe this can backfire, making the person grieving feel worse. 

Life—not God—sends adversity to us all. As pastor and chaplain, I have learned that empathy and shared grief can work miracles. Sometimes we are tested beyond our resources and strength. I know this all too well with my own personal losses. I feel overwhelmed by life and sometimes it is more than I can handle. I understand that these feelings come and go, and God gives us something to enable us to endure. The apostle Paul assures us that when we are tested beyond our strength, God will provide away through until, free on the other side, we can walk forward into the light of a new day.

Grace & Peace,

Stephen

John and Vickie Mancina are coming up from New Orleans to visit Misty Creek this Sunday. Our congregation has been praying for John and Vickie for several months. John had serious cancer return to his mouth and had to have facial and palate reconstruction at MD Anderson to get rid of it. He miraculously survived all the hours of surgery and radiation! He is cancer free! We are thrilled to have John and Vickie with us in person. I know you will want to greet them with some Misty Creek hospitality! 

Grace & Peace,

Stephen

Help Wanted, Help Wanted, Help Wanted.

The signs are everywhere. Many places of business are understaffed. To attract workers some businesses are offering perks. What would you say are the best employee perks in your workplace? Some places offer “casual Fridays,” where the dress code is less formal. For most workplaces, that’s as cutting-edge as they get when it comes to employee perks. But other business owners go out of their way to offer unique benefits to attract and retain employees

In our Bible passage for Sunday, two of Jesus’ closest disciples, James and John, ask him for a favor. They ask him to allow them to sit on his right and left hand in glory. They want the best seats in the house—places of honor and prestige. But they wanted to be appointed to these choice places not because they had earned them or deserved them, but because they had influence with the Boss’ Son. They wanted some special “employee perks” for following Jesus. Does that sound familiar? Jesus said to James and John, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink from the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” In other words, he was asking, “Are you willing to do whatever is necessary to see my kingdom established?” 

To their credit James and John answered, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right or left hand is not mine to grant . . .” What does it take to drink from Jesus’ cup? What does it mean to be baptized with Jesus’ baptism? Actually, the process is quite simple. 

Are you willing to do whatever is necessary—whatever Christ may call upon you to do? Are you willing to pay a price greater than others are willing to pay, to make hard decisions others are unwilling to make and to give more than others are willing to give? Need I say to you that this chapel exists because there were a group of people who were willing to drink from Christ’s cup and be baptized with his baptism? Their names are not known like St. Paul’s or Simon Peter’s. But they are truly disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and whether they sit at the right and left hand of Jesus or not, they are most certainly in His presence.

How about you? Are you made of such stuff? Will your contributions to this world live long after you are gone? Will the earth be a better place because you have walked upon it? At Misty Creek we have been given a God-sized vision of what can be and what I believe will be if we are willing to do whatever Christ may call us to do. 

Grace and Peace,

Stephen