A Heart For
Your heart is filled with the joy of Christmas, so I’m scheduling you for angioplasty after the holidays.
To Do: Nothing Nothing Nothing
JUST DO NOTHING
People say nothing’s impossible ; but I do nothing everyday.” -Winnie the Pooh
GOD IS
How much | Measure “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son.” John 3:16a, MSG
How | Backstory 1-2 The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. 3-5 Everything was created through him; nothing - not one thing! - came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. John 1:1-2, 3-5 (MSG)
How | Backstory 14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood . We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1:14 (MSG)
Why Christmas “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus .” Luke 1:31, NIV
Why Christmas … an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you shall give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins .” Matthew 1:20-21, NIV
Why Christmas “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you…” Luke 2:10, NIV
Why Romans 7: 14-25 (MSG) 14-16 I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself - after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
Why Romans 7: 14-25 (MSG) 17-20 But I need something more ! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
Why Romans 7: 14-25 (MSG) 21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. 24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
Why Romans 7: 14-25 (MSG) 25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does . He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Why | Summary “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why : so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life . God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And Why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. John 3:16-18 (MSG)
Richard Rohr… “Most people do not see things as they are ; rather, they see things as they are.”
Richard Rohr… “In the Gospels, we don’t see “In the Gospels, we don’t see Jesus getting Jesus getting upset with the upset with the sinners. sinners. We see Him getting We see Him getting upset only with those who upset only with those do not think they are who do not think they sinners.” are sinners.”
Soren Kierkegaard… “You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You - You are there first - You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are there first and thus forever. And we speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first only once.”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (MSG) “I’ll give you a new heart , put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self- willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.
Romans 10:8b-10 (MSG) “It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us... Say the welcoming word to God - “Jesus is my [Lord]”- embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything ; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!””
Will you receive this heart this Christmas?
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