Seek Him as the shepherds did.

Happy Christmas Eve, my friends.

May you truly experience the love, joy and peace offered to you by the gift of the baby Jesus.  Seek Him as the shepherds did.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 

(Luke 2:8-15)

Linus knows the true meaning of Christmas. 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

But wait - there's more!  Listen to this great song that really tells the true meaning of Christmas: It's About the Cross.

(It's unlikely I will be writing these messages next week, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year my fellow travelers.)

Eternal God, this joyful day is radiant with the brilliance of your one true light. 

May that light illuminate our hearts and shine in our words and deeds. 

May the hope, the peace, the joy, and the love represented by the birth in Bethlehem fill our lives and become part of all that we say and do. 

May we share the divine life of your son Jesus Christ, even as he humbled himself to share our humanity. 

Bless us and the feast that You have provided for us, let us be thankful for the true gift of Christmas, your Son. 

Amen.

(http://www.prayer-and-prayers.info/christmas-prayers/eternal-god-this-joyful-day.htm)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

This morning I read Micah 4:1-5:

In the last days

   the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established 

   as the highest of the mountains; 

   it will be exalted above the hills, 

   and peoples will stream to it.

Many nations will come and say,

   "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, 

   to the temple of the God of Jacob. 

He will teach us his ways, 

   so that we may walk in his paths." 

The law will go out from Zion, 

   the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

e will judge between many peoples 

   and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. 

They will beat their swords into plowshares 

   and their spears into pruning hooks. 

Nation will not take up sword against nation, 

   nor will they train for war anymore. 

Everyone will sit under their own vine 

   and under their own fig tree, 

and no one will make them afraid, 

   for the LORD Almighty has spoken. 

All the nations may walk 

   in the name of their gods, 

but we will walk in the name of the LORD 

   our God for ever and ever.

There is a great deal of uncertainty in the world today.  Personally, I feel we may be on our way to a worldwide financial crisis that will make the recent recession look like a walk in the park.  I know that sounds pessimistic, and if it weren't for my faith, my trust in God, I would be (more) anxious about the future.  But, as the passage above says clearly, the LORD Almighty has spoken! Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree (mmmmmm date squares ....), and NO ONE will make them afraid.  

That is the hope that Jesus brings to this fearful, challenging world.  When my anxiety level about the future starts to rise, I remember the promises of God, especially this one: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  (Jeremiah 29:11)

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

God of comfort, these times seem so uncertain, so scary.  

The world seems darker than it has in the past and I am less sure of myself.  

Maybe that's a good thing; maybe now I am turning to you with a realization that I need you so much more and that my life is not in my own control.  

Let me not forget all of those around the world who are frightened at this moment.  

Help those who are victims of terrorism and war.  

Be with those who have lost so much in the past year.  

Hold us all in your loving arms and let us be comforted by the strength and peace you want to much to offer us through the birth of your son, Jesus.  

Thank you for the many gifts you offer us.

(http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/advent-prayers.html)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Why did He come?

Good Wednesday morning, my friends.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus on Saturday it seems only fitting that we ask the question: Why did He come?

I was listening to the Gospel of Luke on my drive to work this morning, and Jesus answered the question himself.  Early in His ministry Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and this is what transpired:

He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

   "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 

       because he has anointed me 

       to proclaim good news to the poor. 

   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

       and recovery of sight for the blind, 

       to set the oppressed free, 

       to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

(Luke 4:16b-21)

I love that:  I need the good news.  I need freedom.  I need sight!  I need the Lord's favor!  Hallelujah!  This scripture is still being fulfilled in our hearing.  People are still hearing the good news, gaining freedom and sight, and receiving the Lord's favor in the form of forgiveness, grace and mercy.  THAT is why He came.

If you want to watch something that will make you smile today, have a look at this video:  The Christmas Story, Facebook style.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Let the just rejoice,

for their justifier is born.

Let the sick and infirm rejoice,

For their saviour is born.

Let the captives rejoice,

For their Redeemer is born.

Let slaves rejoice,

for their Master is born.

Let free men rejoice,

For their Liberator is born.

Let All Christians rejoice,

For Jesus Christ is born.

St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-440)

(http://www.prayer-and-prayers.info/christmas-prayers/nativity-prayer-of-st-augustine.htm)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

The Christmas Ten Commandments

Good Tuesday morning, my friends.

Have a look at this list of "The Christmas Ten Commandments" and use it as a barometer of where your heart is this Advent season.  Where are you doing well?  Where do you need to step up?

Amazing Grace and Eternal Peace be yours today,

Bruce

THE CHRISTMAS TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. Thou shalt give thy heart to Christ. Let Him be at the top of thy Christmas list.

2. Thou shalt prepare thy soul for Christmas. Spend not so much on gifts that thy soul is forgotten. 

3. Thou shalt not let Santa Claus replace Christ, thus robbing the day of its spiritual reality. 

4. Thou shalt not burden the shop girl, the mailman, and the merchant with complaints and demands. 

5. Thou shalt give thyself with thy gift. This will increase its value a hundred fold, and he who receiveth it shall treasure it forever. 

6. Thou shalt not value gifts received by their cost. Even the least expensive may signify love, and that is more priceless than silver and gold. 

7. Thou shalt not neglect the needy. Share thy blessings with many who will go hungry and cold unless thou are generous. 

8. Thou shalt not neglect thy church. Its services highlight the true meaning of the season. 

9. Thou shalt be as a little child. Not until thou has become in spirit as a little one art thou ready to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. 

10. Thou shall not forget to share your joy, hope, peace and faith with those around you.

(http://www.2heartsnetwork.org/advent.htm)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Worship Him!

Good Monday morning, my friends.

Yesterday, our pastor preached on Matthew 2:1-12:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:

  "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, 

       are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; 

   for out of you will come a ruler 

       who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The point of the sermon was that even today, people react to Jesus in one of the three ways identified in this passage.  We either:

1.  Ignore Him - the chief priests and teachers of the law knew where the messiah was to be born, and the arrival of the Magi should have been a pretty strong clue that it was about to (or just had) happened, but nothing in this story indicates they went to Bethlehem to see Him!

2.  Resist Him - Herod wanted to remain the only king in the area, and in his own life.  He was not about to bow down before another.

or

3.  Worship Him - the Magi, these mystical wise men from "the East" brought gifts, and "they bowed down and worshiped him".

These responses are very common.  Many people know about Jesus, but ignore Him, hoping He won't interfere with their lives.  Some resist Him and sometimes, like Herod,  even try to appear "religious" in the process: "report to me, so that I too may go and worship him".   And of course, some go to worship and offer gifts.  Personally, I do all three of these at various times.  The question is: which of the three responses are we having today?

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

I believe in Jesus Christ and in the beauty of the gospel begun in Bethlehem.

I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a little town; 

and whose spirit still brings music to persons all over the world, 

in towns both large and small. 

I believe in the one for whom the crowded inn could find no room, 

and I confess that my heart still sometimes wants to exclude Christ from my life today.

I believe in the one who the rulers of the earth ignored and the proud could never understand; 

whose life was among common people, 

whose welcome came from persons of hungry hearts.

I believe in the one who proclaimed the love of God to be invincible:

I believe in the one whose cradle was a mother's arms, 

whose modest home in Nazareth had love for its only wealth, 

who looked at persons and made them see what God's love saw in them, 

who by love brought sinners back to purity, 

and lifted human weakness up to meet the strength of God.

I confess my ever-lasting need of God: 

The need of forgiveness for our selfishness and greed, 

the need of new life for empty souls, 

the need of love for hearts grown cold.

I believe in God who gives us the best of himself.

I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God, 

born in Bethlehem this night, 

for me and for the world. 

(http://www.prayer-and-prayers.info/christmas-prayers/a-christmas-creed.htm)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Lessons from Wise Men

Good Friday morning, my friends.

God certainly brought an interesting cast of characters to Bethlehem.  How about those Wise Men/Kings/Magi who came from the East (Matthew 2:1-12) to bring gifts and worship the baby Jesus?  One of my favourite Far Side cartoons is this one.

We can learn a lesson from the Wise Men - a lesson of obedience, courage, generosity, and worship.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Lord, may we be like the Wise Men 

who were guided to you by a star. 

Give us 

the wisdom to seek you, 

light to guide us to you, 

courage to search until we find you, 

graciousness to worship you 

and generosity to lay our gifts before you, 

who are our King and our God for ever and ever.

Amen. 

(http://www.prayer-and-prayers.info/christmas-prayers/lord-may-we-be-like-the-wise-men.htm)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

A Husband's Prayer

Gentlemen,

This morning I was searching for a prayer to be a better husband.  This is the first one I found, and I needed search no further.  

I can think of no better Christmas gift for Rosemary than offering up this prayer, whether she is aware of it or not.  And I share it with you so that you can give the same gift to your wife.  The short message after the prayer is important and thought provoking.

I am reminded of the "love passage" of 1 Corinthians 13 which has been read at 95% of the weddings I have attended.  It is not, however, a description of our love for our spouses, but rather a description of the perfect love God has for us.  It is a model of how we are to love our wives.

Have a wonderful Christmas filled with grace and peace,

Bruce

A Husband's Prayer

Dear Lord,

Help me to be the kind of husband you want me to be.

Help me not to take my role as husband lightly or take my wife's love for granted.

Help me to be a good listener, giving my wife my full attention so that I will be well aware of her concerns, aspirations, and needs.

Help me to pay attention to the advice my wife gives me when she brings things to my attention that I may be doing wrong or that I could be doing better.

Help me to be more anxious to please my wife than to have my own way.

Help me to be aware of the things that I do that upset my dear wife - and enable me not to keep doing them - so that I will not be causing unnecessary problems in our relationship.

Help me to remember that I am commanded to love my wife as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for it and please help me to better understand what that means to me as a husband.

Help me to treat my wife better than when we were first met and remind me of the importance of spending quality time alone with her and of doing things to remind her of how special she is to me.

Help me not to jump to conclusions about my wife's motives and enable me to think the best of her at all times.

Help me to apologize and set things straight when I complain, falsely accuse, act selfishly, or say unkind or provoking words.

Help me to go out of my way to complement her and to encourage her.

Help me to be a proper example of what a loving, considerate, caring, and self-sacrificing husband should be.

Help me to realize that it is my job to be an example of maturity and not an example of a disrespectful wisecracking school boy.

Help me to be joyful in spite of my circumstances and help me to avoid whining and complaining when things do not go my way.

Help me to admit my faults, to apologize when I am wrong, and to be anxious to heal wounds that I may have caused in my relationship to my wife.

Help me to realize that is far better to get my wife to do things I want her to do because she loves me and not because I threaten her or yell at her.

Help me to never forget that You gave me my wife to be a helpmate and best friend and may I never think of her as an adversary or a hindrance.

Help me to show my children how much I respect and love their mother by my actions and by the words out of my mouth.

Help me not to be afraid to be affectionate and loving towards my wife in front of my children so that they will know how to be good spouses when they grow up.

Help me to properly discipline my children so they are not a burden or a grief to my wife.

Help me to show my children that my wife is truly my very best friend and a highly trusted partner in the ministry of our family. 

Make me the kind of husband who my wife will never regret having married and even more than that, make me the kind of husband who is a joy for my wife to be around and who my wife will be proud to call her husband, a man who honors her and who honors Christ.

Amen.

---

Praying the above prayer is a lot easier than actually taking it to heart. Praying it is a good start but it takes the power of God to be the kind of selfless and self-sacrificing husband that glorifies God and gives a wife the comfort, closeness and security she desires from her husband.   Husbands really need to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.  This means husbands are to love their wives even when their wives do not act lovingly towards their husbands.  True Christian love - Christ-like love - is to be based on love for God and what He has done for sinners like us by redeeming us from the just eternal punishment due to us for our sins.  This kind of love is not to be based on the behavior or performance of our spouse who has the same sinful tendencies as we have and who has the same need for grace and mercy that we have need of.  So, if we can only remember to look at our spouse through the eyes of mercy and grace that God has for us whom He as redeemed by His blood, we will be on the right track when it comes to relating to our spouse in any situation, no matter how hard it may be for us to return love when hurtful words come our way.

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.

Restore the joy of Christmas to my heart

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

In my search for prayers I came across this quote from Fr. Andrew Greeley:

It might be easy to run away to a monastery, away from the commercialization, the hectic hustle, the demanding family responsibilities of Christmas-time. Then we would have a holy Christmas. But we would forget the lesson of the Incarnation, of the enfleshing of God—the lesson that we who are followers of Jesus do not run from the secular; rather we try to transform it. It is our mission to make holy the secular aspects of Christmas just as the early Christians baptized the Christmas tree. And we do this by being holy people—kind, patient, generous, loving, laughing people—no matter how maddening is the Christmas rush…

 (Woman's Day, 12-22-81)

We, as Christians, are called to be IN the world, but not OF the world.  Insulated but not isolated.  "It is our mission to make holy the secular aspects of Christmas".  A challenging mission, but not exactly Mission Impossible (can you hear the theme music playing in the background?). 

So rather than trying to run away from the busy-ness and stress of the season, let's re-focus on the baby in the manger, and on those around us who need to be ministered to at this time.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Bruce

Please forgive me for being so grumpy as I trudge through the never-ending tasks set before me this holiday season. 

My to-do list seems to keep growing with shopping, church services, and family gatherings and I'm running short of time! 

Restore the joy of Christmas to my heart and help me to relax each day and make time for YOU — my one true Source of Joy.

(http://www.suite101.com/content/christian-prayers-and-blessings-for-christmas-a304969#ixzz18HKnIelq)

Bruce MacPherson macpherson@celtic.ca / Blog: The Celtic Christian / Home: 613.489.4174 Cell: 613.720.0821 You are receiving this email because you have requested it or I felt you would be interested in this material. If you would like to be removed from this email list, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. Likewise, if you know of someone else who you believe would appreciate receiving these messages, please let me know.