In a few short weeks, the world will turn to look and discuss the Messiah. Every year, one day has the world looking at the cradle which would rock the world. Whether you celebrate December 25th as the birth of Christ or another holiday in the giving/receiving of gifts, the fact is, people are thinking about the baby Jesus. Most likely, your family and friends will be thinking about Jesus.
While we know that Jesus grew into a man, the Christmas season causes us to reflect on the baby Jesus. It was a humble birth that God chose to bring His Son into the world. It would not be a birth that would amaze the world as it does now, but it would be a quiet entrance of the Promised Deliverer.
The first years would be a silent reflection of the humility of His life. Common people would be His first visitors and around two years of age magi from the east would bring Him earthly, honorable gifts. As His life would be sought by a power-hungry king, His family would become refugees. Finally, returning to His homeland, His family settled in a common town.
Amazingly enough, the Messiah grew up among the people without notice. Even after He grew into adulthood and began His earthly ministry, the people still saw His as Joseph and Mary’s boy. As His fame was growing and multitudes followed Him, some still saw Him as an earthly man and others saw Him as the Messiah the nation had waited so long to see. To the latter, He was their deliverer, their Savior, their King.
Monday after the Thanksgiving day is always a little more difficult than other Mondays. After waking from your “end of the week Turkey and Sugar Coma” you struggle to find the coffee pot before making your way to work.
This morning, allow me to share a video with you to give you some motivation to continue throughout your day. Get your week start on the right foot.
Today’s Monday Motivation is a video by Rick Rigsby. When I first heard this I ended up listening to it at least three times that day. I was intrigued by the words he speaks and the concepts he gives.
Take 10 minutes and be intrigued as well.
If you are interested in learning more about Rick Rigsby you can visit his website here.
Also, here is the book accompanying this video.
Enjoy your day!
This product review post contains our affiliate links to Grammarly. If you purchase a product through our affiliate links, a small portion of the sale will go to continually fund our efforts. I thank you for your support.
Over the past few months, I have saved countless hours in editing and proofreading thanks to Grammarly.
I was skeptical at first, but after a week’s use, I was sold.
Here is a small picture of the start of the review in Microsoft Word and the areas where Grammarly picked up some errors. (Click the picture to see a larger image)
When you add that Grammarly has a browser extension that checks your online documents as you write, the benefits are well worth the cost.
The ability for an app to examine my writing and make suggestions in an instant is fantastic. In the past, I would read the document over and over again, but still, there were errors that I would often overlook.
While most of my writings are done in Microsoft Word, I find that Grammarly picks up more of the errors than the built-in spell check and grammar checker.
Today we all realize we should be thankful, but why?
Why should you be thankful?.
Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season where families gather together, huge meals are prepared and served, days are filled with shopping and time is spent reflecting on the past year. It is during these times, we reflect on the blessings of our lives.
If we are honest with ourselves, we understand we are undeserving of many of our blessings. Despite our choices, we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine. As Christians, there are many reasons we should be thankful every day.
We have been made in God’s image. In the beginning, God said to Himself, “Let Us make man in Our own image, after Our likeness.” (Genesis 1.26) God made us as everlasting people. Shouldn’t we be thankful that everlasting life has been extended to us? Christians have an inheritance reserved in heaven. (1 Peter 1.4) Being made in the image of God, and by trusting in the One God sent, I can be released from the fear of death (Hebrews 2.14-15).
We have a Savior who cares for us? It is a terrible feeling to think that nobody cares, and many suffer in their loneliness. As a Christians, though we may have our moments of discouragements, we can never say, “Nobody cares about me.” Peter writes we can cast our cares on God because he cares for us (1 Peter 5.7). We are blessed to have a Savior to understands our needs (Hebrews 4.15).
We have Jesus as our justifier. In a sense, when we obeyed the gospel, Jesus no long stood as our judge, but He became our justifier. Paul said, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? … It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:31-34)
Tomorrow, the majority of Americans will sit with family and friends around a table full of food that took hours to prepare and it will be eaten in less than twenty minutes. When many think of Thanksgiving, they think of a national holiday of turkey, stuffing/dressing, football and a long afternoon nap.
Thanksgiving goes beyond a holiday; it is a life.
Robert Louis Stevenson is credited with saying, “The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.” I believe Mr. Stevenson is accurate in his statement and it would do each of us good to reflect on his simple words. If one has reached a point where they are no longer thankful, in spite of circumstances, then maybe they are sleeping through life.
Among the lessons Viktor Frankl learned in the Nazi death-camp, Auschwitz, was to take time to be thankful and to count your blessings. He wrote that prisoners in the camp dreamed at night about a certain set of things more than anything else. Bread, cakes, and nice warm baths—the very things we take for granted every day.
Frankl said the prisoners around him began to appreciate beauty as never before. In one especially poignant paragraph, he wrote:
If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of our prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor—or maybe because of it—we were carried away by nature’s beauty, which we had missed for so long.[1]
How can you be thankful beyond a holiday?
Step back from the present circumstance and see the beauty of the world.
Remember, your God is the controller of the universe. (Romans 8.28)
Make a list of things to be thankful and focus on one each day.
Spend time in prayer. (1 Thessalonians 5.17)
Remember, you are going to heaven. (2 Timothy 4.6-8)
Just some thoughts,
[1] Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson’s complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed., p. 734). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
At a last installment of the Black and White Photo Challenge, I will make it simple. It is about Home.
Day #7 – Home
A home is not about brick and mortar; nor is it about the structure itself. It is about the people and the memories. The walls that hold up a house are just walls; it is the people inside who decorate them with pictures, paintings, drawings and more. It is not the stuff that makes a home, but the memories are hanging on those walls.
The house is a house, but the people make it a home. The people bring the house to life with their lives, words, and actions. Their creativity is seen in the design and the decoration. People are the life.
My family has lived in a variety of houses and each one we have made a home. Without them, no house would have been a home.
I enjoy the sounds of our home; the laughter, the jokes, the words of praise, the gripes, the whines and even the tears. Each moment grows our family closer together in our home.
