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If you have stumbled here by accident let me first insist that there really are no accidents in life. If however, you came on your own free will then please by all means open your hearts and your minds to the "New Wine" that God has prepared for you!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Christmas donkey



The world can be a dark, cold place for kids whose parents neglect and abuse them. Max was eight years old when he was first taken away from his parents by Child Protective Services. I’m using the word “parents” here loosely and it’s a misnomer of praise to the two derelict souls who brought Max into the world. His mother was a heroin addict and his father was a violent gang banger who was in and out of prison. Many times while Max was growing up he would be left alone in the family’s rat- infested studio slum apartment, sometimes for days at a time. Most nights, while strung out on heroin, his mother worked the streets of South Detroit turning tricks while his father burglarized storybook  houses on the east side.

One Thanksgiving Day, Max awoke to another empty house. His mother was junked up, high, nodding off in the neighborhood crack house several blocks away. Max had been alone now for several days and there was only a can of beer left in the refrigerator, two heels of moldy bread in a plastic bag and a handful of potatoes growing leaves in the pantry. Max was hungry and cold as the gas and electric had been shut off weeks ago, due to the unpaid bills scattered over the kitchen table.

After several years of incarceration, Max’s father returned from prison. Drunk with anger, his dad began beating Max as soon as he walked through the apartment door. Then, after downing a quart of Black Velvet, his father chased Max out the front door and began shooting at him with a small caliber pistol. Max jumped, dodged and ran around the front fenced in area like a rabbit in a shooting gallery. Miraculously, Max was able to evade the bullets long enough for the police to arrive and put his father back into custody. That Thanksgiving Max landed in the Greater Detroit Child Protection Program which sponsored him to spend Christmas at camp Christos in Montana.

Max’s hair blew back over his face as the crisp December wind rolled over him in waves. It was snowing and the pure white flakes seemed to hang motionless in the air. The only sounds that could be heard were the horse’s forceful snorts and the jingle bells that were tied around their hoofs. The sleigh glided effortlessly through the newly piled drifts of snow as the Clydesdales galloped back towards the safety and warmth of the barn where there was always plenty of oats and hay to devour.

It was the night before Christmas, and all through the small village of St. Mary everyone was busy decorating their store fronts. The baker, butcher and mercantile all had beautiful, festive murals of the Nativity skillfully painted on their windows. A lamplighter was busy lighting the cast iron lamps that lined both sides of the street. Max had never seen such things and thought that he had actually died and was now in heaven.

Camp Christos was beautiful this time of year with all the trees around the circular drive decorated and now covered in pure white snow. As the sleigh pulled up to a stop, the horses poked their heads out of the stalls welcoming Max to their wonderful ranch. The donkeys too, in their thick winter coats were walking out towards the sleigh to greet their new visitor. As Max walked into the lodge, there was a large blazing fire roaring in the living room. Its light warmed and illuminated the fourteen foot tall Christmas tree that stood as a reminder that something special was about to happen.

As soon as Max was settled in, the ranch manager Curly, a rough looking cowboy from Texas, asked Max if he’d like to help him feed the horses. As Curly threw leafs of oats and hay, Max leaned back against the cedar railed fence to watch as the horses pulled them apart and pounded their feathery hoofs on  frozen metal water troughs. This was not the chaotic land of survival that Max had grown up in; he had never known such peace and quiet.

Just as Curly threw the last leaf to the horses, Roxy one of the donkeys, leaned her head over the fence and began muzzling the side of Max’s head. Max was startled at first but Curly reassured him that she was only showing him that she loved him and her appreciation for the food. At that moment, something snapped inside of Max and he felt an unusual warm sensation in his heart as his faced blushed and eyes filled with tears.
That beautiful day God used a plain old donkey to show a neglected, abused child from Detroit what love was really like. While Max never experienced love from other human beings, God used another one of His creatures, a regular old donkey, to show Max what Christmas was really all about.   

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Dear John letters



Let’s suppose, for the sake of study, that the date the apostle John wrote his three letters was around ninety-six A.D. and that by that time John was already in his late nineties.  We know the apostle was living out his last days as a pastor in Ephesus, Asia (modern day Turkey). John would have been very elderly by now having spent ten years of life in exile on the island of Patmos.

Time wise, it would have been 63 years since the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and 26 years since the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. The initial flame of excitement that spread at Pentecost, giving birth to the church, would have long since gone out, allowing room for other gospels and false teachings to creep in.

 All the other apostles, by this time, had either been martyred or were dead. Even their disciples were getting on in age so that the last group of people to actually have seen Jesus come back from death was dwindling. There was noticeable division and fracturing of doctrine growing in the church as false teachers began to teach that Jesus did not come in human flesh or that He never came back to life after death.

It’s in this climate that the apostle John writes to the faithful in Ephesus, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us- that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you may also have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:1-4. 

John was stating, for the record, the truth about Jesus!
John goes on to write in his second letter “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” and wanting to underscore the severity of this foundational undermining, John continues, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.” 2 John 7-9.

The virgin birth of the Messiah was hinted at as early as Genesis 3:15 where God first promises that He would send the Messiah through the “seed of the woman” (remember the seed comes from the man and the ovum from the woman). Then written in the book of Isaiah some 750 years before the birth of Jesus Christ we find another prophecy of His virgin birth “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14. “Immanuel” actually means “God with us” and is a glorious description of Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus” is Greek for the equivalent Hebrew name Jeshua which is a form of Joshua and is translated “Yahweh is salvation”. It’s interesting that both of these proper names written 750 years apart describe both the purpose/mission of Jesus and His title as the Son of man, God and King of all creation.

John writes in the book of Revelation, chapter 2, how Jesus gives a report card to seven churches located in Asia. To the church in Ephesus, He states how they were doing great in the area of weeding out the false apostles and teachers but that they themselves had left or strayed from their first love. He reminds the church at Ephesus to repent and return to the first works and Him.

According to the letters of John, the proof that we are truly followers of Christ, and have not believed in vain, is that we love the brethren. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” 1 John 3:16, 17. 

I want to encourage all of you this holiday season to look for ways to reach out to other people in your community who are in need, spiritually, physically and financially. We all need to return to our first love and give God the front seat in our lives by reaching out in love to others. As we give God our love, time and resources we are worshiping Him and proving that we have not believed in vain. 

Let us not put gift buying and holiday traditions above our love for the Lord and one another.