Mary and Joseph

We have all had to face the sudden and long-lasting impact of COVID-19. Our country seems more divided than ever. Our politics, economics, and society appear unreliable and unstable. Many have of us have faced troubles related to health, finances, or family. In the midst of it all, Jesus’s birth offers a promised certainty in these difficult times.

During this time, I think about how Joseph and Mary faced many of these troubles as well. Mary was a 15-year-old first-century Jewish girl rejected by her culture for having an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Joseph, also, faced the same problem, his fiancée was pregnant, and he was not the baby’s father. Mary’s response to all the naysayers was a humble, “I am the servant of the Lord.” She said, “Let it be to me according to Your word” (Luke 1:38). As they faced all their troubles, they still obeyed God.

Just like Mary and Joseph, as we face our troubles in our life, we are tools in the hand of God to mold us and shape us and make us into something beyond our imagination. God will change your troubles into trumpets if you let Him perform His work in you.

All the world around us may seem broken, but as we near Christmas, let us be mindful of the Christmas story of Joseph and Mary. How is God's hand going to mold us and shape us during this season? Center this Christmas around One born in Bethlehem – He is undeniably our promised Savior, a truth to embrace no matter the times.

Durke Donelson
Associate Pastor
Trenton GracePointe Nazarene
1-513-288-6349

The Joy of Christmas

In a Charlie Brown Christmas Special, Charlie Brown just couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit. So, his friend Linus observed, “Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”

You see, if our focus is on anything besides Christ at Christmas, it is so easy to lose our joy! I love saying Merry Christmas! The word “Merry” means, “jovial, exhilarated to laughter”.

The Bible reminds us in Luke 12:18-19 "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, [and] be merry."

This man thought he had found the secret to happiness, how to have a merry life, but sadly, he missed it. He thought his joy was found in his possessions, but he was sadly mistaken.

What does your house, car, jewelry, TV, and cell phone all have in common? They are all dead, inanimate objects. We can pour the best years of our lives into acquiring dead, inanimate objects. Do you know what the result is? Our joy tanks remain empty. When we focus on Christ and his birth, and we focus on the purpose of His coming. You know what that brings? JOY!

Is there anything wrong with giving and receiving gifts? NO! But that should not be the focus of our joy, because this joy - happiness - is only temporary, but the joy we have in Christ is permanent. Make Christ first in your thoughts, in your time, serving, giving, praise, and worship.

Jesus didn't come to earth to gather possessions, but rather He came to form relationships with people. He invested His life in people! He gave His life for people.

If your Christmas has lost its joy, place your emphasis on people, not possessions. Christmas is supposed to be about a person, that person is Jesus Christ!

One man said it this way, “You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father’s face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift.”

The best gift ever is not found under a tree, it was nailed to a tree, and His name is JESUS!!! That’s the secret to having JOY at Christmas.

Pastor Tim Smith
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Church of Trenton
1-513-638-1687
www.fbctrenton.com

God with Us

Matthew 1: 22-23 “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).”

God with us. How wonderful! At Christmas we are reminded that we have been given access to God’s presence in our lives through Jesus. His presence is vital to our Christian faith. It’s this promise, realization, and assurance - that we are not alone; but that God is with us - that empowers us to be like Christ.

The word which means “God with us” is translated as "Emmanuel” or "Immanuel.” In the scripture, it is the Greek rendering of two Hebrew words; immanu, meaning "with us," and 'el, meaning "God.” It appears three times in the Bible. The first two are found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah (7:14 & 8:8.) It was penned at a time in history in which the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms and much turmoil existed. Through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds His people that He will not forget them in their time of distress and need; but rather He will send them a sign of deliverance in the form of a baby born to a virgin. And this baby will be the Savior of the world; in fact, He will be the Son of God! (God with us!)

The latter mention of the word Emmanuel is found in the New Testament book of Matthew (1:23). In his writing, Matthew connects the dots from the prophecy first given through Isaiah to its fulfillment, Jesus Christ. As we celebrate the fact that Jesus came to be God with us, it’s important we remember that not only did Jesus become “God with us” during his time on earth, but He will always be God with us. That’s one of the themes that threads its way through the book of Matthew. In the final verse of the last chapter (28:20), as Jesus instructs His followers to live out the Great Commission, He says this; “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” It’s His presence that is the present of Christmas!

As we focus our hearts and minds on the celebration of Jesus’ birth, let’s be encouraged and comforted in knowing that we have been given access to God through faith in Jesus Christ (Emmanuel). And by the grace of God, we are never left alone. God is with us; always!

Pastor Todd Wallen
Senior Pastor
Home Ave. First Church of God
1-513-470-1246
http://www.homeavechurch.org/

When Was Jesus Born?

When was Jesus born? It’s not a trick question… or is it? The fast response would be to say that Jesus was born on Christmas, because after all, that’s why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. It’s certainly not wrong to think that Jesus was born on Christmas, but it might be more right to say that Jesus’ birth was about Jesus coming to live among us in human form. Jesus had life long before His physical birth, only it was in a different form. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus has existed with the Father since the beginning of time: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1-2

Philippians 2:6 tells us that Jesus existed “in the form of God.” The word “form” as used here goes much deeper than just surface shapes or outward appearances. It’s an expression that captures the idea of “being.” In other words, Jesus is not just like God – He is God. So why would Jesus leave the majesty of heaven where He was seated at the right hand of His Father to come to earth in the form of a baby?

His main reason for coming was to fulfill the plan of His Father – which was to make a way for all of us to be in a right relationship with God. We can have this when we invite Jesus to be Lord of our lives and put our faith and trust in Him. Jesus made this possible for us when He sacrificed his life on the Cross as the Sacrificial Lamb for our sins.

But there’s another reason Jesus came – that was so we could “see God.” The Bible tells us that “God is Spirit” (John 2:24), and thus we can’t see God. The only way we could see God would be if he arrived in visible form. As we’ve just seen, Jesus is God, and Jesus came to earth in the form of a human baby, therefore through His incarnation Jesus was the very form, or essence, of God.

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:3

Pastor Ron Wenzel
Senior Pastor
Trenton Mennonite Church
1-513-988-0313

We Need a Little Christmas

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4

Remember the Christmas tune, “We Need A Little Christmas”, made famous by Angela Lansbury as she sang it in Mame? The musical is set in the midst of the depression. This song gets dusted off and gets airplay again every holiday season. I resonate with the mood of this song this year of 2020, which has been rough. Who couldn’t use some holiday cheer, a reason to celebrate and something to look forward to, something that plants the seed of hope in all of us again?

We need a little Christmas, but we know that Christmas, like everything else this year, will be altered by this pandemic that we are learning to live with. Can we still celebrate if our gatherings are limited in size and number, so we do not inadvertently make one another sick? We may miss the trappings and traditions of the holiday, yet the truth behind the season remains strong and gives us hope in the face of adversity. Christmas is needed even more when life is hard, as it has been this year. We look to the Lord, and He does indeed answer us.

This Advent season we can still give thanks for the things we have, even as we grieve that which has been lost this year. We can celebrate the Good News and remind the world that God’s intent is to save you and me, to save the world and redeem all things through this baby born in a manger. We all need this season of giving thanks, the season of waiting, and anticipation for our God who will break into our world again. May you know the peace, joy, love, and Good News of Christ, even in the midst of this strange, hard year.

Cheerfully,
Pastor Gidget Collins
Senior Pastor
Seven Mile Presbyterian Church
1-513-726-6385
http://www.miamipresbytery.org/pmv_churches/seven_mile.htm

The Canvas of Nature

Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalm 46:8-11

I pondered that scripture recently one morning as I visited my son and his family in Nevada. The thermometer registered in the eighties, and the air was still and heavy. It is that dry air of the desert. The sun was high, and the birds were silent and still. Within a matter of hours, night would fall, the dark sky would be ablaze with moon and stars, and sleep’s will forced itself on me. As I slumber, life will continue uninterrupted. Appreciated or not, the canvas of nature will go on being painted by the finger of God.

Somewhere, many miles removed from there, winter crops were pushing their way toward the sky. In another direction, waves roared and tumbled onto shore and sand with a rhythm so enchanting none can keep from staring. Windswept forests across the mountains would sing their timeless songs as timber and foliage blended their voices in the harmony of the hills. And there in Nevada, the desert animals would scurry in the shadows of cactus and rock, maintaining their tiny existence free of concern. There is something about meditating on creation that reminds us of the goodness and faithfulness of God.

I feel the places of our great country every time I travel from Ohio across the country. Even from 32,000 feet one can tell the differences in scenery. Whether we are gazing down at the ribbon of the great Mississippi River, or the lovely cut squares of the heartland farm country, to the majestic mountains, we live in the land of the free. The verses of Psalm 46 are a good reminder today of the ancient truth.

Especially during Advent, the longing of a person’s heart for deep peace is somehow recaptured when we meditate on the greatness of God. When we see all the beauty of that nature He has made from sea to shining sea. Go out tonight under the dark night and gaze at the heavens. Or take a long drive into the country in the coolness of evening. Don't speak. Just peer into the night sky as you take in the beauty and think of the wonder of creation. When you do, you will discover what it means to be still and know that He is God.

Most Cheerfully,
Pastor Gidget
Seven Mile Presbyterian Church
1-513-726-6385
http://www.miamipresbytery.org/pmv_churches/seven_mile.htm

Santa’s Christmas List

We have all heard or sang the song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. It is a fun little song and certainly evokes images of holiday and gift giving. It has been a standard favorite of the holiday season since its debut back in 1934. I have only recently begun to wonder if the song had contributed to my childhood theology.

“He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town”

Somehow, back in the day, I had begun equating Santa Claus with God, or at least giving them both some similar qualities. I was especially intrigued with the concept of a list that was being kept about me! If my nice deeds outweighed my naughty deeds, I would be having a blessed Christmas morning, discovering that Santa had visited during the night and I was found worthy!

As a teen, my concept of heaven and eternal life was a lot like Santa’s list. I truly felt that if my good deeds outweighed my bad deeds, God would declare me “nice” and I would have a home in heaven! And I really felt that the opposite was also true. If God checked His list and saw that the bad outweighed the good deeds, I would be denied heaven.

But Christmas tells us all something very different. The birth of Christ was God’s Gift to mankind. Some will believe it and receive it! Others will simply ignore or reject it. “But as many as received him to then He gave the right to become the children of God” Jn 1:12 Regardless of whether you have been “naughty or nice” you must receive Christ as God’s payment for sins penalty and the promise of eternal life!

Christmas really is the light of hope in a dark weary world! Receive God’s Christmas Gift to experience abundant life, here and now!

Pastor Keith Risner
Senior Pastor
Edgewood Baptist Church
513-894-8708
https://www.edgewoodbaptist.org/