I remember when I lost my eyeglasses a few years ago. They dropped out of my shirt pocket as I was bending over outside in the yard. It was ten o’clock at night and I needed those glasses for reading. I needed a light. I needed a good light. There may have been a lot of options as far as a light was concerned; such as a penlight, a flashlight, the overhead outside light and even a work light that I have on a stand. It turned out that none of those lights were sufficient and I found my glasses the next day –after the sun came up! When you need a good light the sun is your best option. David said that God pitched the sun in the sky and that it comes forth out of its chamber as a bridegroom and nothing is hidden from its heat. I would like to say that nothing is hidden from its light either but that’s just not the case. There are things that still lay hidden in the deep shadows of this life that the light never reaches. For instance, Jesus said that men don’t come to the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. He said that men loved darkness more than light and this is only because they loved the sin that they kept hidden by the cloak of darkness. For the light exposes everything. Everything is laid bare before the eyes of God. John said that in Christ is life and that life was the light of all men. If we are to find our purpose in life it would be to our advantage to utilize the best light possible. Why would anyone try to find his or her way through this darkness with a light that isn’t sufficient? I have a flashlight that keeps blinking because of a bad connection; the thing is almost worthless. I get frustrated using it. You may be saying, “Just throw the thing away!” I agree and that is what I would say to the world when they try to use the lights of manmade religion to get through life. Throw them away and get the True Light that has come into the world. King George VI, England’s king during the days following the Second World War, said to the Commonwealth, “I said to the man at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may walk safely into the unknown.’ He said to me, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand in the hand of God, and it shall be to you better than the light, and safer than the known.’” If you are like me you are wondering what the next year will bring. During this time fear wants to stifle us to inaction. If we put our hand into the hand of God, His light shall direct us through all the obstacles that will come. His light will be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. There is no reason to rely on inefficient light when we have the True Light that gives light for all men. Brothers and Sisters, as we turn the corner and enter in to the new year let us trust in the light of God’s love for our lives and for the lives of our loved ones. He is sufficient and His grace will prove sufficient as well.

I was returning from Newcomerstown the other night while the Space Shuttle Discovery was returning to earth. The news broadcast went directly to live programming from Cape Canaveral, Florida during the touchdown. All eyes were on the spacecraft as recent memories of the last shuttle disaster loomed in NASA’s mind. The weather was a factor also, as they chose Florida’s conditions over New Mexico and California’s. When Discovery was safely on the runway the broadcaster said that this safe return would be the best Christmas present for the astronauts and their families. I couldn’t agree more. I could imagine the anxiety that these folks had has they prayed for their safe return. Then, as they entered the earth’s atmosphere, and all systems were “go”, all eyes went to the evening sky as the setting sun illuminated this little fireball’s approach. The thrill and excitement met with the anxiety, as all were on pins and needles. The sonic booms as the shuttle raced through the evening sky on its way to bringing loved ones back together for Christmas seemed to explode the message: I’M HOME! I’M HOME! The sigh of relief was evident and the applause of NASA brought tears from thankful hearts. The listener could feel the intensity of these emotions because the Space Shuttle Discovery safely returned back to earth.
Soon men and women everywhere will have their eyes pealed to the heavens as the King of kings makes His way back into earth’s atmosphere. And every eye shall see Him as He places His feet upon Mt. Olivet just east of Jerusalem. He is coming back with His righteous ones and they will rule with Him for a thousand years. Loved ones will be reunited and new friends will be made. The wolf and the lamb will lie down together and the nations will no longer learn war. Righteousness and Peace shall kiss one another and fear will be trampled under foot. God is planning a return and He has appointed a Day when men and women from every nation, from every tongue and from every race will know that Jesus Christ is Lord. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but shall have eternal life. When this Christ comes and “touches down” inside a man’s heart he shall receive new life. That is the best Christmas blessing anyone could receive!

I was born on July 22, 1957 to Jack H. and Marilyn Narita Gross in a small hospital in Akron, Ohio. There is still a lot of mystery enshrouding that day; such as, who the doctors and nurses were that helped delivery me and was it raining or sunny? Was it exceptionally warm or was it unseasonably cool –no one knows for sure. Certainly you would think that someone would remember that on July 22, Jimmy Gross was born into the world. As the years went by we forgot what day it actually was but that’s all right because the important fact was that –I was born! Living in the good old U.S.A. I guess it may have been because of vacations and summer schools that the day was lost to obscurity, but, like I said, it doesn’t matter much. The important thing is that I’m here living among you. What tickles me (and it really isn’t all that funny) is that my brothers and sisters still argue amongst themselves about the actual day. And while they have been fighting, everyone else just celebrates it any old way they choose. It has gotten so bad that some folks don’t even allow my name to be spoken. It’s like they think that I don’t hear their silly little reasons of not offending certain folks –what am I? Chopped liver? Wasn’t it my birth that they were celebrating in the first place? Yeah, I’ve been kind of pushed to the side on this one, as a matter of fact, I’ve been down-right pushed OUT in some circles. Whether it’s through embarrassment, greed, drunkenness or just plain hatred (not everyone likes me) my birthday just isn’t what it used to be. But please, don’t think that I’m sitting in the corner somewhere brooding over this. I’m not. Do you know what bothers me though? It’s the folks that are determined to celebrate my birthday just one time a year and for the rest of the year they live like I don’t even exist. No calls, no letters, no visits, no acknowledgement that I even exist! They say they give gifts to one another for my sake but they can’t even be kind towards one another. Thanks but no thanks! Really, it’s fine that people want to celebrate my birthday and it’s fine that not everybody celebrates it the same, but for goodness sake don’t live your lives as though I’m not living here with you! That’s just plain rude.

The other day I opened the new package of Quaker Instant Oats. I like the maple and brown sugar flavor! Of course I would rather have bacon and eggs every morning but… Robin wouldn’t have any of that. She has allotted me those kinds of breakfasts to twice a week –if that! Back to the oats; Quaker oats are my oats of choice but because the “off” brand is almost a dollar cheaper we buy those instead. In my opinion the Quaker Oats are a much better product and it is sort of a treat when I get them. Anyway, I opened the package and looked for the little interesting trivia facts that they put on the individual packages. But they weren’t there; then, I remembered that it was the “off” brand that had those little tidbits of information that made breakfast time just a little more interesting. I remember saying to myself when I first discovered that the “off” brand had these trivia facts-facts like this: Did you know that the United States produces more the 775,000,000 gallons of ice cream every year?- that I was going to buy these oats so I could collect the trivia facts. I know what you’re thinking, “Who cares about know how many gallons of ice cream the U.S. produces?” Exactly, and what do these facts have anything to do with the oats? It’s a marketing ploy! Do the makers of this product need something more than oats to sell their product? Do they think that the quality of their product isn’t good enough to sell itself? Obviously not, and so they attach something to their product that helps sell it, but has nothing to do with that product.
Just when I made this little discovery, the Lord spoke to my heart and asked me if I thought that today’s Church did the same thing with His Gospel. Do you think that we give the people the plain Gospel or do we dress it up with frivolous features that we hope attract the unsaved and keep the complacent? Isn’t the simple truth that God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son to die in our stead enough to excite our love and commitment to Him? The Gospel is simply this: Everyone who has ever lived has sinned and deserves the condemnation that hangs over their head. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. No one is exempt from this sentence of death for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But God, in His rich mercy and His love for us sent Jesus to die in our place. Jesus is the atonement for our sins and in Him we have been forgiven. Therefore, if any man be found in Christ, he is a new creation with the sentence of condemnation removed from his/her life. This gives a clean slate and a new start in life. It allows us to forget the past of our selfishness and gives us new direction into servant hood. What brought you to Christ? What keeps you in Christ? I am going to be bold here and say that if it is anything more than the plain truth that God forgave you of your sins, I believe that you are in danger of buying into an “off” brand of the Gospel –a gospel that is really no gospel at all. I am not a Christian because God heals me, or God prospers me financially, or because people will see that I am a “good” person. No, I am a Christian because God forgave me of my sins and I owe Him my life! This is faith and it is faith that pleases God. May God have mercy on us and continue to reveal Jesus Christ to us!

“Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.” Ez.16:8

No matter how you look at it God entered into a covenant that He established in His own Name, The writer of Hebrews tells us that when God entered into a covenant with Abraham, He swore by His own Name because there is none greater than God. Therefore, when we know that God makes a covenant He binds Himself to it. God does not change and so neither shall the covenants that He makes. You are God’s because God said so. What does this mean for us? Well, first of all, we are God’s possession, the called of God to be His people and He will be our God. Second, we are the apple of His eye and the treasure of His heart. Thirdly, we are His children and He is our Father.

As I was growing up I caused my parents a lot of grief. Was forever getting into trouble just because I wanted to do my own thing. They set up rules that I thought were just too strict and, as far as I was concerned, were hampering my style. I was fourteen and thought I knew all there was to know about life. Yeah right! Anyway, the point that I want to make is that no matter how much grief I caused them, they still considered me as their son. They may have been very disappointed in the way my life was heading but that isn’t the point that I want to make either. Now, I am not condoning just living our lives as Christians any old way we want and expect God to take us in His arms. I remember Jesus saying that He was the vine and we are the branches and any branch that didn’t bear fruit was in danger of being cut off from the vine –and that by God Himself. But what I would like to share is that God is bigger than your failings and mistakes and I think it is high time that we “forget that which is behind,” and get on with the business at hand. Listen, God is not as emotional as you and I. In fact, He controls His emotions through His will. That is the key of getting right back up when you fall. Sometimes people get so angry with themselves after the mess up that they say things like, “I know God forgives me but, I can’t forgive myself.” That statement should never be said by a born-again believer. If God requires that we forgive one another, He desires that we forgive ourselves also. Besides that, how do you expect to be used by God when you just keep looking at your failings? No sir, God wants us to continue to look at Him and the covenant that He has made with us so that we can get on with business. Trust that God knows how to deal with your mistakes (and your successes) and you’ll be ready when God wants to use you again.