Little Flatrock Christian Church

From the Bible Project:

Joy

We often think about joy as an experience of happiness based on favorable circumstances: a stroke of good luck, a personal achievement, or a long-held desire finally being satisfied. But when joy depends on circumstances, it fades fast when the good times end. 

Advent joy is not about general happiness stemming from good times. It’s a deep sense of safety and freedom people feel because of God’s loving character, which remains constant through all circumstances, and because God can be trusted to ultimately bless and heal creation as he promised. Similar to the joy a friend’s presence brings on good days and bad, we experience joy as God walks with us through the fluctuations of life’s positive and painful circumstances. 

In the Bible, people express joy both when God delivers them from situations of oppression and while still in the middle of exile, persecution, and pain. As people remember God’s loving, rescuing actions throughout history, they wait in joyful hope for him to act in the future, even when that waiting requires patient suffering. 

This kind of joy is about being united with the God who walks with us and trusting that he will one day wipe away every tear. It looks to the future but also takes root in our present reality. The season of Advent invites us to experience joy not because everything is perfect but because God is with us and his joy is already breaking into the world.

For more like this visit The Bible Project: Advent

Luke 1:39-45

Inventor Nikola Tesla, whose discoveries led to alternating current, was born in 1856 during a lightning storm. According to legend, a frightened midwife declared, “This child will be a child of darkness!” But Tesla’s mother replied, “No, he will be a child of light.”

As an adult, Tesla reportedly stood to applaud God whenever the skies opened. In Please, Sorry, Thanks, Mark Batterson writes, “Every time lightning struck and thunder clapped, it was one genius giving a standing ovation to another Genius.”

Every day, about 3.46 million lightning strikes occur on our planet. “That is a lot of standing ovations,” Batterson writes, “but according to the psalmist, the angels shout ‘Encore’ after each one!” (Psalm 29). He asks, “When was the last time you clapped for the Creator? When was the last time you gave Him a standing ovation?”

The month of November is a terrific time to start clapping for our wise, good God. Give Him daily thanks for His wonders and blessings!

Most of us are pretty good at planning—schedules, to-do lists, calendars filled to the brim. But what happens when God steps in with an unexpected detour?

Throughout Scripture, God often moved in the interruptions. Moses was tending sheep when he saw a burning bush. Mary was simply living her life when an angel appeared. Even Jesus was frequently “interrupted” by people seeking healing or hope—and He never turned them away.

“Interruptible faith” is a posture of openness. It’s saying, “Lord, here’s my plan—but I trust Yours more.” It means slowing down, paying attention, and being willing to let God rearrange our day for His greater purpose.

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) reminds us, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” May we have the courage to let Him.

You may recall that many followers of Jesus called him “Rabbi.” In essence, the word means teacher. Clearly the word describes the brilliant Nazarene who was constantly teaching his listeners about God and God’s expectations of humans.

In a secular society, it is of paramount importance that the teachings of Christ be proclaimed and affirmed wherever possible. In the early days of our country, it was customary for public schools to teach reading, writing and arithmetic as well as Christian principles. Subjects being taught were presented in a setting of morality, religion and character development.

The reading book compiled by William H. McGuffey in 1836 focused on such themes as self-denial, temperance, obedience, and warned against laziness, profanity, stealing and vanity.

In our time, however, when it is difficult to focus on God and spiritual matters in public schools, our churches and families have a great responsibility. Sunday school attendance, not only for children but for adults as well, must be of primary importance. Prayer, as well as discussion of social issues from a Christian point of view, must be practiced in the home and church. We must learn and teach about Christ.

“Learn from me,” Jesus said. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29 NRSV). Where shall we learn of him or from him if not in our churches and homes?

It’s the best week of summer, and we welcome your kiddos!

Gethsemane, the name of the place where Jesus prayed before his betrayal, is an Aramaic word for “olive press.” During Bible times, olives were pressed three times to remove all the valuable oil. Before being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus felt the full pressing weight of our sins on his shoulders. Surrounded by olive trees, praying fervently while sweating drops of blood, the perfect Son of God asked his heavenly Father three times to remove the cup of suffering.

Instead of removing that trial, God used it to redeem and save humankind. Likewise, God uses our hardships to refine and strengthen our faith.

In The Rock, the Road and the Rabbi, TV host Kathie Lee Gifford and Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel speculate that if Peter, along with James and John, hadn’t fallen asleep in Gethsemane, he may have had the strength to not deny Jesus later that night.

“All of us must be vigilant to watch and pray so that we don’t succumb to the temptation to deny the Lord when we go through the olive presses of life and feel like we are being crushed by our situation and circumstances,” the authors write. “We must remember that it is the crushing that brings out the true inner value and worth of the olive.”

During the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday (March 5 this year), Christians figuratively follow Jesus into the desert. Just as our Savior spent 40 days fasting and facing temptation, we focus on self-reflection and contrition.

In an 1873 hymn, Claudia Hernaman wrote, “O Lord, throughout these forty days, you prayed and kept the fast. Inspire repentance for our sin, and free us from our past.”

The desert experience of Lent serves a clear purpose, filling us up rather than depleting us. “This is what Lent is meant to be,” writes theologian Ron Rolheiser. “Time in the desert to courageously face the chaos and the demons within us and to let God do battle with them through us. The result is that we are purified, made ready, so the intoxicating joy of Easter might then bind us more closely to God and each other.”

Lenten Resources:

In a video on his publisher’s website, Eugene Peterson tells of watching a kingfisher repeatedly dive for fish in a lake. Peterson counted 37 dives before the kingfisher caught its supper! “And he’s the king fisher!” Peterson chuckles. From that bird-watching episode, he gleaned a ministry lesson: It may take a long time and many attempts — maybe dozens! — before something works out.

God calls us to live out his love faithfully, even when we don’t seem to be accomplishing anything. Maybe we extend 36 invitations to worship, work 36 monthly shifts at a food bank or utter 36 prayers without seeing results. “What’s the point?” we wonder. But the kingfisher urges us on: “Maybe number 37 is the charm!”

In the words of St. Paul (and mixing fishing and farming metaphors): “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9, NIV).