A Healthy Body

The New Year is here, and some of us will be making resolutions. Have you ever noticed that most of our resolutions concern our physical health? We resolve to eat less and exercise more, and more often than not, by mid-January, we have fallen back into the same old bad habits. We know what we should do; we just don’t do it. Or we don’t do it until something like a heart attack gets our attention.

As Christians we often make resolutions that concern our spiritual health. We resolve to pray more or to actually finish reading through the Bible in One Year. Much like our other resolutions we do well at first. We keep up with Genesis and Exodus but fall behind in Leviticus and finally quit in Deuteronomy. Isn’t it interesting that physically we eat too much of the wrong stuff and spiritually we eat too little of the good stuff?

I encourage you to make good resolutions and keep them. There is nothing wrong with setting good and healthy goals. However, your personal resolutions (or lack thereof) are not what I want to address in this short post. As your pastor, I challenge you to think about the health of our church. We speak often of our physical health, and we have a good idea of what it means to be a healthy person. As I said before, we know what we should do. We just don’t do it. As Christians, we have a notion of what it means to be spiritually healthy. We all know the five correct answers to most any question asked in Sunday School: Jesus, God, The Holy Spirit, Pray more and Read your Bible. Again, we know what we should do. We just don’t do it!

We know what it means to have a physically healthy body, but do we, as a body of believers, know what it means to be a Biblically healthy congregation? That is the question I want you to think about. What does the Bible say? If I were to ask you to list the physical marks of a healthy body you could easily list several. What if I asked you to list the Biblical marks of a healthy congregation? What would you say? The health of our church is the central theme of this year’s State of the Church Address. Every member of Little Flock Baptist Church who is physically able should attend. This year’s Address will be given in the Morning Worship Service, on Sunday January 24th. It is my prayer that God would make us into a strong and healthy church that glorifies Christ in all things.

Ripped Wrapping Paper and Busted Boxes

Think about Christmas morning. It will be here before you know it. What comes to your mind? One picture that comes to my mind’s eye is the huge scattering of ripped wrapping paper, busted boxes and battered bows, left in our living room when all of the presents have been unwrapped. Have you ever lost a gift or part of a gift in all of that mess? Dad I lost one of my action figures?” “Mom have you seen my dolly’s hat?” Jess and I look at the huge trash bag filled with wrapping paper, and not wanting to tear all of that paper back out, we respond, “Nope… we haven’t seen them.” I wonder how many gifts are caught up in all of that wrapping paper and thrown away each year. I wonder how much we lose in all that clutter.

My job, as your pastor, is to remind you not to lose the gift in all of the wrappings. Don’t allow the gift to be caught up in all of that clutter. E.B. White once said, “To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.” He is right. It is all too easy to forget Christ at Christmas. If we don’t purpose otherwise we can get caught up in all of the clutter. Don’t lose the gift in all of the wrappings. I didn’t say that all wrappings are evil. No, they are not necessarily evil; they are only peripheral and not necessary. Wrappings come and go, but Jesus remains. Traditions die. Jesus lives! Wrappings are burned in the fire. Jesus saves our souls from hell. Christmas is a Christian holiday that revolves around Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior. Celebrate Christ’s birth this Christmas!

For the next three Sunday mornings we will examine four of the Old Testament prophesies fulfilled by the birth of our Lord. This Christmas sermon series is titled, “Mary, The Magi and The Maniac.” Come each week, and we will study through Matthew chapters 1 and 2. Finally, please join us on Christmas Eve. We will celebrate the birth and sacrificial death of our Savior in a special Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion. The service begins at 6:30P.M. If you are in town, bring your family as we remember the sacrifice of our Risen Lord!

Have a truly Blessed and Merry Christmas!