Joy to Your World!

If there is one truth that leaps out at us from the pages of Scripture at Christmas, it is that Jesus came to be the Light of the world! Light came into this dark world when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The prophet Isaiah calls Jesus “a great light” who has shined on those who “walked in darkness”. The prophet is referring to spiritual darkness, which also is so very great. But the darkness was no match for the Light of the world, God’s Messiah…the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, also anticipated the coming of the Savior. In his great song of praise, he prophesied that Jesus would “give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79) Another man of God by the name of Simeon pointed to the light as he blessed the baby Jesus (Luke 2:32). No matter where you turn in God’s Word, you will find that Christmas is about light.  As you sing Carols of praise this Christmas notice how many speak of the Light of the world…Jesus.

Light has come into our world, and we never need to walk in darkness again. Shed some light on your world. Bring Joy to Your World…The Lord has come indeed!

                                      Jesus is Born! Hallelujah!

                                      Luke 2:14

   "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

      We give God all the Glory for 2011 and the opportunities to minister

             peace and goodwill in Charlotte and around the World!

“Creative Christmas Greetings and Holiday Traditions”

(Luke 1:5-60)

How will you greet people for Christmas this year? Will you do it personally, send a card, an email, a call, or maybe even a gift? What traditions will you continue in your family?

The Bible is full of Greetings and Traditions. In the Old Testament the word is Shalom which means Peace (in body and soul).In the New Testament it is the word Choira which means Be Happy or Be Well. The Christmas story in the Gospels is filled with greetings. Greetings says the angel Gabriel to Mary, Blessed are you calls out Elizabeth to her pregnant Cousin Mary  And then we hear the other angels saying, “Do not be afraid”… which is a fitting greeting for so many wounded.

Creating holiday traditions and rituals can be good for your marriage as well as your family. Having special activities you do together can help you feel more like a team. It can also help you create memories for years to come. So how do we start?

Begin by looking at your current holiday traditions. Do you have any? Sometimes people don’t even recognize that what they do is traditional. Perhaps it is going to Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve or attending a holiday party. Take a look at what you usually do during the holiday seasons. Especially look at your own Christian Celebrations.

Also, take a look at the traditions that you had as a child. Which ones do you want to continue? Which ones would you be happy to let go of? What traditions does your spouse have? If there are traditions you don’t like or that have become stressful, remember that you can let go of some of them in your adulthood.

It’s important to honor the traditions from your past that you want to continue. It’s equally important to create new traditions as a married adult that are separate from your family. Having a tradition just for you and your spouse and your children is a healthy way to separate you from your parents.

Traditions don’t have to be elaborate. They also don’t have to cost much. Often it is the simple things that create the best memories. Whether you decide to bake cookies, look at Christmas lights, volunteer for a charity, throw a holiday party, or decorate together, remember that your traditions don’t need to be formal. So try to spend the holidays focusing on what is important to you and your family. Worry less about shopping, gifts and making things perfect. Focus on having special time together and enjoying one another’s company.

We need to learn how to give good Creative Christmas Greetings each year. Beyond the Christmas cards, or an occasional Happy Holidays, We could say “Do not be afraid” to our wounded, hurting world.  We can say it in a variety of ways. Maybe with a “I’m not too busy, I can talk or Yes, I mess up at times also, but God can help., or even a simple Hi, punctuated with a smile. There is no better time than at Christmas to share the difference Jesus makes in our lives.

One Christmas day, I will stand before my maker. I will want to thank him for His special Christmas gift of His Son for me. I am sure I will be a little afraid, but I know His greeting will be warm and accepting. He promised it would be…Today is a good day to examine our own lives at Christmas and the way we Greet others, and maybe, just maybe we can learn how to make our Christmas Greetings and Traditions more creative and more effective this Holiday year.

Will You Accept the Responsibility?

In the morally challenged society of His day, Jesus taught His followers to conduct themselves righteously as they lived and worked among those around them, maintaining moral purity as they awaited His return to affect real, lasting moral renewal. Their cause was to support a proclamation of good news—of the time when His government would bring the change desperately needed by a society in bondage to moral decay. (Matthew 24:14).

Their responsibility was, as His was, not to make a political stand but a moral one. With the aid of His precepts, they were to navigate the difficult waters of the moral challenges they and their families would face, while living in a society that often opposed godly values. The responsibility rests upon individual believers.

We, as individuals, must accept 

our personal responsibilityfor our own families!

What are we talking about anyway? What are common traits of a healthy and wholesome family? Psychologist Dolores Curran conducted a survey of 551 professionals who are involved with family matters and she came up with the following fifteen common traits of families who tend to be happy and harmonious:

The Healthy Family:
1. Communicates and listens
2. Affirms and supports one another
3. Teaches respect for others
4. Develops a sense of trust
5. Has a sense of play and humor
6. Exhibits a sense of shared responsibility
7. Teaches a sense of right and wrong
8. Has a strong sense of family in which rituals and traditions abound
9. Has a balance of interaction among members
10. Has a shared religious core
11. Respects the privacy of one another
12. Values service to others
13 Fosters family table time and conversation
14. Shares leisure time
15. Admits to and seeks help with problems.   5

If these are the target areas that seem to be the goal of successful parenting, how does one get the training? God has uniquely gifted the believer to lead the family by example. There is no reason why the family should not be super-successful in every area and in all ways. There are plenty of reasons why we can begin to restore our values to Godly standards. These standards will allow the family to truly be happy, healthy, and harmonious. Even though meeting the needs of the family may seem like a balancing act at times, the Lord has filled His believers with the power and the potential to accomplish it.

We just need to learn to Apply, and Exemplify,

so we can Amplify the “fruit flavored family”.

The Apostle Paul spoke of this truth when he wrote in

Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”

Seeking God's Wisdom in Marriage

I have just finished Pre-Marital counseling with a young couple and am praying for my youngest son as he and his fiancée go through their counseling as they prepare for marriage. I have had the honor of performing the ceremonies of over 300 marriages in my ministry, so this is not new to me. It is always a joy to take the couples through a required 5 or more hours of counseling in order to make sure they have thought through this Covenant commitment. The Bible, God’s Word, is very clear on the subject of Marriage as an institution. Again, we find the basis of marriage in the book of beginnings, Genesis 2:18, 24

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother

and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Marriage is a divine institution designed to form a permanent union between man and woman that they might be helpful to one another.

Jesus also emphasized this truth in His teaching in Matthew 19:4-6

4 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Again we see that the Bible is teaching that it is God that has joined Man and Woman

(“male and female”) together in Marriage. It is God who has ordained and set the standard for Marriage. It is the “Creator” God who has instituted this relationship and institution called Marriage. We can seek to redefine these Truths of Scripture, but there is no way we can deny the specifics written here in God’s Word.

When the debates begin, simply refer to God’s Truth. Simply stand on the Promises and Principals of the Holy Bible. As Herschel Hobbs so clearly states: The Scriptures are “a perfect treasure of divine instruction…the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.” As Peter said in 2 Peter 1:20-21

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

I guess we all could listen and form our opinions on the wisdom of man, but I think I will continue to seek the wisdom of God and His Truth in His Holy Word. What about you?

Marriage and the Family…A Biblical View

Marriage and the family is a wonderful institution, but one that the world is seeking to redefine and reinvent. I understand the hurts of the broken family and the single parent family and I am sensitive at how we can seek to help, but when the world seeks to make up a definition of Marriage and force that on us, it is time to be vocal and speak forth the truth from God’s Word. My calling as a Minister of the Gospel is to “proclaim the truths found in the Holy Bible”. So let’s begin our study by looking at Marriage and the Family from a Biblical Viewpoint. I am not asking anyone to agree with me and I am sure many will want to disagree. If you read articles from both sides of the subject, they can be very convincing in their arguments. But, in order to do this, the Bible has to be left out. The Bible, God’s Word, is very clear on the subject of Marriage as an institution. So let’s walk through the Holy Scriptures and follow these thoughts.

We begin in the book of beginnings, Genesis 2:18, 24

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother

and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

This was the beginning of God’s concept of Marriage. Marriage is a divine institution designed to form a permanent union between man and woman that they might be helpful to one another (“a man…united to his wife”). Moses presents it as the deepest physical and spiritual unity of man and woman, and monogamy as the form of marriage ordained by God (also see Ephesians 5:31). Without the marital tie the inhabitants of this world would have been a mixed multitude. It is true that man has disobeyed God’s original plan and substituted his own thoughts, but that does not change God’s Word on the subject. God created Male and Female for the purpose of populating the earth and enjoying one another in a Marriage Commitment. (Genesis 1:26-28) Without this form, the family circle, family instruction, and parental love and care would have been altogether unknown. When we try to think outside the moral absolutes of God’s Word and reason within ourselves what is right and wrong that is where the trouble begins. I am not wanting to get into some political or societal debate with these truths, but asking believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to simply study the Word of God and accept and proclaim the basic doctrine of Marriage found within. Genesis is clear! God says it, I believe, and that settles it…

Welcome to our Family!

Every family in the world is looking for a recipe for success.

Every family in the world is looking for a way to be happy, content, and valuable. In our ever-changing society the pressure is on to find any way possible to make our families “work”. We all want a successful family life. We are looking for answers to all the questions of being a “parent”. We are seeking ways to have a loving, caring, committed family. We want our families to make it. Everyone is tired of the label “dysfunctional family”. People just want this thing called “family” to be functional again. What is the recipe for success? What can we do?

I remember as a child that my parents wanted what was best for me in all things. When our local pediatrician told my parents that I needed to take a multi-vitamin they bought me the regular ones that tasted terrible. I would hide them or pretend to take them. Then the maker of multi-vitamins began producing “fruit flavored” ones. I loved them and took them regularly. The fruit flavoring allowed me to get what I needed and to like it. Fruit Flavoring had been around since it was invented by James Van Zandt Blaney, M.D. in 1844, but “the recipe” was only applied to multi-vitamins over a hundred years later.

The “fruit flavored” style of leading our families has also been around for many years, but is not something that people use. It is a great way to see your family “work”. In a world gone wrong, we have a chance to do what is right. For the Christian believer, the Holy Spirit in you is this “fruit flavoring” Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and, self-control, placed in you at conversion by the Holy Spirit, is the “fruit flavoring” that allows the family to function smoothly. The overflow of God’s Spirit in you “flavors” your parenting and your family with a workable recipe.

This blog-site is the result of years of seeking to be a “flavored” family of faith. Cheryl and I (Garry) have had the honor of being parents of 3 children. This is quite a blessing and has allowed us to continue to experience and grow in our lives as a family. So, one can see our parenting journey is well traveled.

We have sought to put down in print what we have experienced as parents and marriage partners. We have seen these principals work and at times struggled at best to know just “what to do”. Some great leaders in parenting with their writings and teachings have influenced us. It has been a great journey of faith and we feel honored to have been chosen by God to walk this path. Influence counts! Whether it is being influenced or influencing another, our lives are God’s way to influence the world. We all are called to impact the world we live in. For most of us, that begins with our family. And whatever help one can get from others, well, we all want it.