“We are born casting sidelong glances, and worldliness is a sin that depends upon the sidelong glance. The devil nurtures the sidelong glance like it was his own precious child, which it actually is, and whenever the Holy Spirit comes upon one, He kills it dead.”

The weaker brother is tempted to judge the stronger brother, and the stronger brother is tempted to despise the weaker brother. Paul says the weaker brother only eats veggies, so he is tempted to judge and shake his head at his meat-eating brother. And the brother who is grilling steaks on the grill and drinking beer is tempted to despise and look down on the brother who sticks with his veggie burger and lemonade. Both men are breaking the law of love. Love trumps everything. So the judgmental brother gets cranky, but he is called to receive his brother. The one who is despising the weaker brother wants to set him straight, but Paul wants him to receive his weaker brother.

There is always a deeper right than being right. God may not care about whether we eat alfalfa sprouts or not, but He does care about the judging and the despising we do. The more I have thought about this, the more I see how often we can fall into one ditch or the other: either looking down on the weak or passing judgment on the strong. Love trumps everything.

1. Don’t abuse your family. Do you swipe money or stuff from your parents (or siblings) and figure that it’s all in the family?

2. Just because you wouldn’t mind if someone swiped twenty out of your purse doesn’t mean they won’t mind if you swipe twenty out of theirs. So don’t abuse the Golden Rule. Just because you think you wouldn’t mind if they broke your lawnmower doesn’t mean that they won’t mind that you just broke theirs. Repair it and return it.

3. Words are free. The debtor should be chasing the lender, not the other way around. If you owe someone money, chase them down and tell them you will pay them as soon as you can. And keep chasing them down regularly to tell them you are working on it. In the world, the creditor always has to chase down the debtor.Christians should be known for their honesty.

4. Don’t abuse the passage of time. Just because you borrowed the money a long time ago doesn’t mean it is now paid. A poor memory is not the same thing as a good conscience.

5. Don’t measure your  neighbor’s love with the yardstick of your debts. His love is not your business. Your business is whether you are loving him and obeying God by taking care of your debts.

6. Don’t nickle and dime your friends to death. Kids do this. Can I borrow a quarter? A pencil? You must return what you borrow and not presume on the friendship. Your friends won’t like it. You will become known as a mooch.

7. Just because the person you owe has a nicer house or a nicer car than you do does not mean you don’t have to pay them. Physicians often only receive half the money owed them, and you don’t know whether they are having a hard time making payroll. Pay your bills regardless of what you think their needs may be. Their needs are not the point and not your business.

8. Don’t ask businessmen and women to mentor your kids for free just because we are all members of a tight-knit community. Don’t bring your sick kitty to the church potluck to ask the vet in the congregation for free advice.

9. How many of the books on your shelves (or dvd’s) belong to someone else? Return them. If you don’t, you are a thief.

10. If you break something you borrowed, replace it. Don’t return it broken and say, “Oh well, we’re friends, she won’t mind.” Enough with “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” That’s not an excuse for not paying your bills.

All these things are ways in which we love one another. Love isn’t a sticky, gooey feeling. Love obeys God’s commands. Love replaces the broken object, love pays the bill, love returns the borrowed item.

Thomas Watson said that there are three things Christians tend to forget: their faults, their friends, and their instructions.

As you can see, this was a whopper of a sermon!

And now a  tidbit from the sermon: We do not need to prove the resurrection; the resurrection is the proof itself. The resurrection proves that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He will come to judge the world. Luke refers to the many infallible proofs of Christ’s resurrection in Acts 1:1-3.

The Kingdom of God refers to the realm and reign of King Jesus, and His crown rights were established by His resurrection from the dead. It is not an ethereal kingdom, but a very real and earthy one.  We live like His loyal subjects by loving one another, which is proof to the world that love has been raised from the dead in us. And just like the resurrection was real and physical, our love to one another is real and physical. We touch one another, we feed one another, we give gifts to one another. That is resurrection living.

Hope you all had a blessed day!

Worldliness and godliness represent two different approaches to life. Worldliness is dedicated to the futile, vain desire to avoid death at all costs. Worldliness says don’t let go, don’t give up, don’t surrender (to God), get what you can and hold it in a death grip. Worldliness isn’t about lipstick or some kinds of music. If only it were so easy! Rather, worldliness is not wanting to take up your cross daily and follow Christ.

Godliness, on the other hand, is about death and fruitfulness. The abundant life that Christ offers requires dying daily, following Jesus to the cross and the tomb, and living the resurrection life in Him on the other side. But no one wants to die. That is the center of worldly thinking. Dying daily means putting others first, letting go, giving ourselves up (for our parents, our children, our spouses, our neighbors). If we want to know Jesus, we must follow Him, and that’s the path He has taken.

In other words, did God command us to not worry? Yes. And He gives us peace. Did He command us to love our enemies? Yes, and He will give us that love. So as we exercise our faith in obedience, we are not left to find the resources within ourselves. What a disappointment that would be! But He enables us to obey Him by giving us all the resources we have in Christ. It’s as though He fills our cupboards with heavenly provisions, and then tells us to open them up and help ourselves. Think about this one for a while! I have been finding it helpful all week.

“We are to love the people of God, although they have many weak infirmities; shew me the man that is perfect, and let him throw the first stone, even the best. Saints like the Stars they have their twinkling, they have their blemishes and their failings: in some there’s too much pride, in others too much censoriousness, in others too much rash anger and passion, but we must love the grace that is in them, not withstanding the infirmities that are in them; you love gold though in the oare, and mixed with much impurity; a Saint on earth, is like a Diamond that hath it’s flaw, like to the Rose that is sweet and perfumed, but yet hath it’s prickes. The best Saints have some mixture and infirmity, and we must love them for the good that is in them: this is our great fault, we are apt to over-look all the good, and to take notices of the stain and blemishes in them; as those that see a little stain in a piece of Scarlet, dispise the Cloth for the stains sake; so do we. But God doth not do so by us, he is pleased to over-look many sad failings, he seeth the faith, and winks at the failings of his people; you that cannot love a Brother because you see an imperfection in him, would you have God do so by you, would you have him damn you for every blemish of sin?”

“Have a care of your Company, take heed of unnecessary familiarity with sinners; we cannot catch health from another, but we may soon catch a disease; the disease of sin is very catching: I would be as afraid of coming among the wicked as among those that have the plague. If we cannot make others better, let us have a care that they make not us worse.”

“Be more afraid of sin then of suffering. A man may be afflicted, and yet have the love of God, but he cannot sin but presently God is angry; sin eclipses the light of God’s countenance, in suffering, the conscience may be quiet.”

“In the time of trouble and calamity, yet still it is well with the righteous, because God doth cover his people in the time of trouble, he hides them in the storm; God hath a care to hide his jewels, and will not let them be carried away.”

The basic thrust was this: Look out. Look sharp. Christmas is coming, and it is not all about you. The text was Colossians 3:12-17 and the idea that the minister was expressing to us was that we should take a hint from the past seventeen Christmases where we fell on our faces and do a little preparation this year.  After all, it will be here on Friday. And, as he put it, there it is on the calendar, leering at you.

What could he be talking about? He was talking about all our (unspoken) expectations about Christmas and how they set us up and booby-trap us every year, and we fall flat in several ways: we are disappointed because it wasn’t as wonderful as we had hoped; we didn’t get any good gifts (a mop instead of pearls); the stuff we got everyone else was way under-appreciated; nobody offered to help in the kitchen; and we load everyone up with emotional, financial, and spiritual invoices that we tuck into the gifts we are giving. This translates into an emotional roller coaster ride rather than a sweet celebration of gratitude to God for His unspeakable gift.

We know that it is more blessed to give than receive. But this is not an ethical command. It is not a star on our report card. When we give, we are giving ourselves, and when we receive a blessing from giving the gift, then we are actually on the receiving end. In other words, we receive when we give more than we receive when we receive. Giving is a gift in itself.

Christmas is ordinary life, only ramped up, so we need to ramp up our preparations. We need to focus on being first and then doing will flow from that. But if we go straight to the doing (cooking, shopping, wrapping, cleaning) without the being (without getting into our Christmas garb) then we will fall flat ten minutes into it.

There is a way to prepare for Christmas this year so the above mentioned items do not happen as in years past. This way of preparing is to get dressed for Christmas. How do we get dressed? We put on Christ. And from the passage in Colossians, this means putting on mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, forgiveness, and longsuffering.

So get dressed for Christmas. Put on Christ. Don’t be a fusser. Don’t load your family up with unspoken expectations and then flop when they don’t perform. Doing flows out of being. So first be dressed in Christ. And then do Christmas.

We are sometimes tempted to feel guilty for things that God has not prohibited.  But this is diabolical and comes from the accuser, just like the White Witch in Narnia who, when she saw the animals feasting and opening gifts, demanded to know “Why all this waste?” In the Garden of Eden there was only one tree forbidden in the midst of many trees. But ever since Adam ate the fruit, we have been frozen in that moment, thinking all the trees were forbidden, and that God does not want His people having too much fun. But that is slandering our good God.

If we view Advent not as a season of penitence, but as a season of preparation, that is not because we are against repentance. We are getting ready, putting things in order, smoothing out the road (Isaiah 40:1-8).  Advent is much like the time we spend in the kitchen preparing a feast. It is a time of anticipation and excitement, standing on tiptoe waiting expectantly for the coming of the Messiah. The angels brought glad tidings, and we want to live in such a way that we can bring these same tidings of comfort and joy to the whole world. And that can’t be done with a long face.