This is especially for my friends
overseas... We are blessed to have over 60 Amish families around us here in our
town. Amish people do not use electricity. They do not drive automobiles. They
ride in horse-drawn buggies. They use centuries old techniques to farm the
land. They have strong work ethics. They are resourceful, with great
imagination. I talked to an Amish man yesterday, who shared with me that he
has built log homes with his father. His dad has built over 60 log houses in
this region. He himself is a farmer, a builder a roofer and a
logger.
I also stopped in one of the large department
stores. The store is decked out with all Christmas merchandise, including lit
Christmas trees and all other accessories. The month of November is here. This
festive and celebrative season of Thanksgiving is here once more, paving the
way for the Advent and Christmas seasons. What a way to live and what a way to
celebrate. My wife is busy planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She is
exploring how to decorate our new home with 25 Christmas trees (not quite). She
has started listening to Christmas Music and started sewing and knitting for our
Grandchildren. She has started watching Christmas Marathon Movies. She has
even written the first edition of our family Christmas letter. Sunday morning I
was caught a glimpse of "Little House on the Prairie... Christmas Edition" The
Episode ended by the words of the youngest in the family, Carrie, as she said,
"Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus". May Jesus, the fountain of all blessings, be
praised.
I was reading from Ephesians chapter one this
morning. When Eugene Peterson translated the last part of this passage
for The Message, he included this unique
sentence, “At the center of all this,
Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world;
the world is peripheral to the church." There are two radically different ways
of looking at things. Either the world is at the center and Christ is at
the periphery or Christ is at the center of life and the world is off at the
edges. So many have bought into
the notion that this world is all that matters. They’ve pushed Christ to the
periphery of life. But when Christ comes to the center, the world is seen for
what it really is–something on the edges.
Someone shared about his conversation with a friend who
is struggling with this very issue. He explained that living for Christ is like
a football game." You’re either on the bench or you’re in the
game. Your problem is, you’re sitting on the bench goofing off when you
ought to be in the game serving the Lord. Bench warmers sit around, goof off,
laugh, cut up, and trade jokes while the game is going on. If you ever decide
to get in the game, you won’t have time to do the things you do
now.”
Our God has given us all we need. Oh, that we might know the hope of our
calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the amazing power of God. It’s all
ours and it’s all wrapped up in one Person, Jesus Christ. Oh, that we might
know him better. Oh, that our eyes might be opened to see things clearly. Oh,
that we might love him and serve him and make him the center of
life.
In
Christ,
Brown
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