August 15 – No shifting Shadows and Stable Source

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  James 1:17 (ESV)

Have you ever noticed how if you remain long enough in one place, the shadows around you do move? Perhaps on a hot day you find the perfect shady spot to park your car and when you come back it is in direct sunlight.  The longer we live in this world, the more we realize that things are constantly changing. Some changes can be predicted and prepared for. Other changes are not so easy to predict. Our verse today reminds us of shifting shadows we have seen. We realize that as shadows change it is because the source of light casting them is constantly changing – or the object, like a light fixture casting the shadow is being moved.  To keep a shadow from moving we need to stabilize the source of light and the object as well. This verse identifies our Father God as the Father of lights.  His light shining on us is constant and unchangeable. He will always love us. Things around us may change but He remains and His goodness will always be there for us. Let's stand firm in His light and our shadow will not be shifting.

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January 11 – Resolved to Serve

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  - 1 Peter 4:10-11 (ESV)

Do you make New Year resolutions each year?  How does that work out for you?  For most of us the resolutions we make at the beginning of each year begin with sincere intentions but sort of fade from our memories. Soon, they are like a wisp of smoke from a candle that has just be put out. Our promise today might be a better starting point for new resolutions.  We are promised that as believers in Jesus Christ through faith, He has given each of us a gift.  The purpose of this gift is to glorify God through Jesus Christ.  Bringing Glory to  God is why we exist. It is why Jesus came to Earth and took on the form of a man lived a perfect life and sacrificed himself, a man without fault or spiritual blemish.  Resolving to observe the promises of this verse is a good place to start each year and throughout the year serving one another as God has enabled us to.  Today then, let's resolve to put our gifts to work for the Glory of God.

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January 8 – No Shadow Shifting

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”  -James 1:17  (NASB)

We have been finding and pondering promises from the letter James wrote.  Today’s promise is one of certainty about the gift Giver.  Every truly good thing, and all the perfect gifts we receive come from God.  When it comes to God’s Word there is no such thing “individual truth” or “truth the way I see it.”  Our personal opinion and faulty understanding can only produce various shadows of what we want the truth to be.  The result is that kind varies from one to another.  Believing this kind of truth is like trying to keep our shadow. It is constantly changing and it comes and goes depending on our surroundings.  God’s truth is one of the perfect gifts that comes from above and it is always without variation.  It is has no shifting shadows because Truth only comes from the Father of lights. There is only one light shining on it and that light is the Word of God as given in the Bible.  

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December 23 – Indescribable! Inexpressible!

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NASB)

There is a lot of thinking these days about gifts.  People have been getting ready to exchange gifts – shopping and wrapping.  Giving and receiving things consumes most people’s time. Christian believers began to observe the birth of Christ Jesus around the year 336 AD.  As Christmas is a gift time, we must not forget that God gave His Son which was the fulfillment of a promise He made long before. When Christmas gifts are opened there are many expressions of reactions. We could say that those receiving the gifts eagerly describe them with words like, “What a beautiful sweater!” or “What a wonderful gift!” Our verse of promise we have today calls God’s gift of His only begotten Son, “indescribable”  We can try to describe the gift that God gave, but is it not really an indescribable gift? Or “inexpressible” as a different version has it.  There are no words that can adequately describe how great this gift of His love is. So, what do we do? We remember this gift not just this season but all year long. We remember to thank God with our whole hearts for His gift of Jesus Christ.

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March 26 – Freely Given to Freely Serve

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:”   1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)

This promise is for us, for each person who has willfully and purposely put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  God has, in response, provided each of  us with a gift that fits the work He calls us to do. Becoming a believer has great benefit and purpose. For one, our purpose is to bring Glory to God and to share the opportunity God has made for all people. We are helped when we come to realize that God wants to use us, His children, to help others know about His wonderful grace and to help them take advantage of it in their lives.  In this way we will be serving our families, our friends, and our neighbors  in a way that will bring them closer to God and help them realize how great God's grace is.  To accomplish this, is why we each have been gifted with a spiritual gift to use in this purpose of service to one another. Our lives receive the benefit and blessing of close fellowship and support from each other. It is how God designed our stewardship through His wonderful grace.    

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December 25 – Indescribable Giving

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”   2 Corinthians 9:15 (NASB)

While Christmas is a time to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is also a time of giving gifts as an example of the love of God.  It should also be a time of giving thanks for gifts received.   All of us who have believed in Jesus as our Savior will agree that the greatest Gift ever given was when God gave His Son to be our Savior.  In the Gospel of John (3:16) we read that is was because God loved the world so much, He gave us His only begotten Son.   He had one purpose in giving this Gift and it was so that we would come to believe in Him and not perish but have eternal life.  This Gift given to the world that night in Bethlehem, more than 2000 years ago, was given so that you and I and all who believe would be able to receive the ultimate Gift of eternal life with Him.  So we give thanks today on this day, set aside as a special day to remember the indescribable Gift God has given us.  This is the core message of Christmas and it is the promise that should stir all our hearts and minds to thank God.   

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Please pass on this message of the Gift and share with friends.

December 22 – Truly An Incomprehensible Gift

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”  2 Corinthians 8:9  (ESV)

We believe that most people who reflect on the true story of Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ – are impressed by the humble circumstances of the location where it occurred.  But to be laid in a manger, or feeding trough for livestock was only a sign of a greater truth which is expressed out Bible verse today.  Jesus was the Son of God, the ruler and owner of all the universe.  He was richer than we can comprehend.  He became poor which was shown not only by His birthplace – a stable where animals were kept – but by His entire style of living here on earth.  He did all this for us, to bring us into the family of God with all that this includes.  His purpose and mission on this earth was to live as humans live, but without sin, and to die for our sins, in our place so that we might live with Him in heaven if we believe and receive this gift.  He has made us rich – richer than we can comprehend.  As we think of his coming at Christmas, let's remember this promise – He became poor so that we might become rich.  What a gift. 

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Please take a moment to share this gift with friends.

December 17 – Possessing Our Inheritance

“He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.”  Psalm 2:7-8 (NASB)

Christmas time is a time for singing praises to God for the gift of Jesus.  Have you wondered how that got started?  Of course we have been looking at the songs the angels sang for the shepherds near Bethlehem the night Jesus was born and we sing that song now.  But the song which the angels sang that night was not the first song about the birth of our Savior.  Actually the coming of the Savior was mentioned in several of the songs sung long before He came.  The New Testament reminds us that some of the Old Testament Psalms had referred to Jesus.  Today's we have a verse from Psalm 2.   These words and others like them were being sung for years and for many centuries before Jesus came to earth in the form of a human.  That's because God had planned long ago to send a Savior.  God gave us His Son so that we would have a way to enjoy the inheritance He desires us to have, to be His children.

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Please take a moment to share with friends.

December 16 – The Gift of Gifts

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.”  Isaiah 9:6a (NIV)

We come back to this verse in Isaiah that is a prophecy of the birth of Jesus.  We focus on the first part and the prediction of His purpose.  When we sing Christmas carols we are aware that some of them refer to the baby Jesus as a new King born to sit eventually on the throne of David.  We realize that some of the prophecies about His reign as King have not yet been fulfilled and this would include this prediction of the government being on His shoulders.  We do want to recognize, however that Jesus came to be governor in our lives.  We will do well to let Him be in control of the details of our lives and also of the general plan of things which concern us.  We can allow Him to be our governor and our King with confidence because we trust His promise that He loves us and He will lead us in the best way at all times.  God the Father gave us His Son so that we could be born again as a child of God with Jesus as our King and Lord.  Let that fill our thoughts today and result in praise and thanksgiving for this Gift of gifts.  

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Please take a moment to share with friends.

October 3 – Undying Love

“Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Ephesians 6:24 (NIV)

Although this promise was written to the body of believers in Ephesus 2000 years ago, we believe this promise is also for us today. The grace given to us by God is a wonderful gift and we know that grace is actually undeserved favor from God. We have done nothing to earn it. God is all  knowing and he does pay attention to our actions and also he knows very well the attitudes of our hearts. He gives us, through his grace, our ability to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart and with an undying love. We respond with that ability and practice that love and we receive more grace. Not because we have done good things and deserve it but because we believe and receive it freely from the hand of God. 

August 15 – Stable Source

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17 (NIV)

The longer we live in this world, the more we realize that things are constantly changing. Our verse today reminds us of shifting shadows and we can think of shadows like that which we have seen. We realize that when shadows continually change is is because the source of light causing them is constantly changing – or the object casting the shadow is being moved.  To keep a shadow from moving we need to stabilize the source of light and the object as well. This verse likens the source of light to the Father of heavenly lights and that source is stable. His light shining on us is constant. He will always be the same. He will always love us. Things around us may change but He remains and His goodness will always be there for us. Let's stand firm in His light and our shadow will not be shifting.

December 23

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

There is a lot of thinking these days about gifts for Christians. People are getting ready to give gifts – shopping and wrapping. And they are also thinking about receiving gifts. Christmas is a gift time and we must not forget that God started it by giving His Son. When Christmas gifts are opened there are many expressions of reactions. We could say that those receiving the gifts eagerly describe them with words like, “What a beautiful sweater!” or “What a wonderful gift!” We can try to describe the gift that God gave, but our verse reminds us that His gift is indescribable. No words can fully describe how great is this gift of His love. So, what do we do? We just thank Him with our whole hearts.

February 8

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NIV)

Do we know all that God has promised to give those who trust Him? We have to admit that we do not, but God has provided a way for us to learn about it. If we have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior then God has sent us His Holy Spirit to live with us, to indwell us. And an important part of His function in us is to show us what God has made available to us. If we are to benefit from God’s promised blessings, we need to believe and trust Him for them. If we don’t know what they are, we have the Holy Spirit to show us what we can trust Him for.