Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church Orlando FL

What is the soundtrack of your life? If there was a musical composition made to the beat of your day, how would it sound? Would it be a fast tempo with very little room for rests? Would it be a melancholy arrangement? Would it be a repetitive song that plays on repeat day in and day out? Most importantly, who is this song for? Maybe it’s time to change our tune. As we look towards a new year, maybe it’s time to sing a new song geared to our Great God.

There is something about Christmas that makes anything possible. We’ve come to expect the unexpected; that’s just how God works. Christ showed up in the most unlikely of places on the very first Christmas day. We can expect that He does the same thing today and everyday.

As our minds our busied by wrapping gifts (and opening them) it’s time to turn our hearts to the greatest gift ever given. Christ has come to be a light in the darkness and show us the way to everlasting life.

Stress. Anxiety. Fear. Worry. If any of these words describe how you’ve felt or are feeling, there’s a good chance you’re a human being. We all feel weight of worry some time or another. God invites us to find peace in Him, no matter how great our weight of worry.

You can never choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond to it. We are not promised a life of happiness when we follow Christ; in fact we are told that there will be trials and tribulations. It’s easy to gripe and complain when things get tough. God calls us to respond with something else. God calls us to choose a Spirit of Joy!

Sometimes we have a hard time putting aside time to pray. When we do find the time, our prayers tend to look like this: please God give me this… or God please help me with this. What would it look like to put everything aside and just say, “Hey God, thanks. Thanks for everything.” Let’s enter a season of thankfulness together.

As Andy from the movie Shawshank Redemption famously said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” As we wind down the season of Pentecost and transition into the season of Advent, we enter into an atmosphere of hope. Hope is one of those things that can start as a tiny spark but can ignite and bring light into the darkest of situations. There’s a reason Jesus is called the hope of all nations.

It’s incredibly important to remember why we do what we do. It’s easy to get lost in religiosity and churchology and lose the heart behind it. God calls us to be steadfast in His good work. When you labor for the Lord, it is never ever in vain.

Soli Deo gloria emphasizes the glory of God as the goal of life. Rather than striving to please church leaders, keep a list of rules, or guard our own interests, our goal is to glorify the Lord. The idea of soli Deo gloria is found in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Solus Christus emphasizes the role of Jesus in salvation. The Roman Catholic tradition had placed church leaders such as priests in the role of intercessor between the laity and God. Reformers emphasized Jesus’ role as our “high priest” who intercedes on our behalf before the Father. Hebrews 4:15 teaches, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus is the One who offers access to God, not a human spiritual leader.