WORK OF CHRISTMAS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among people,

To make music in the heart.

"The Work of Christmas" in The Mood of Christmas - Thurman

 

I have a great colleague and friend Pastor Nancy who posted this yesterday to her feed on FACEBOOK. And before I go any further I must say that Pastor Nancy is the PERFECT person to POST this. 

 

She DOES the WORK of CHRISTMAS tirelessly the other 364 a year. 

 

She is an advocate for the addicted. Her church is a refuge for the oppressed, impoverished, and the disenfranchised.  She has GRABBED the calling of Teresa Avila (“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”) with BOTH hands and BOTH feet and expresses the LOVE of CHRIST every day to her BELOVED WEST SIDE of Columbus. 

 

She is an inspiration.

She is the REAL DEAL.

 

So, when she posts something to encourage us to:

find the lost,

heal the broken,

feed the hungry,

release the prisoner,

rebuild the nations,

bring peace among people,

make music in the heart. 

You must believe it to be an encouragement to JOIN her in that work!

 

I deeply appreciate and love my friend.

 

But what can WE take from Thurman and Pastor N. today? 

It is obvious.  Let’s channel the energy of CHRISTMAS to infuse our hearts, spirits, hands, and feet to the WORK that needs to be done around us.

 

Folks ARE lost and broken. 

Can we help them find NEW direction, help heal their hurts? Sure, we can!

Can we help feed the hungry?  Pastor N. feeds 200+ every FRIDAY out of a AUTO SHOP in conjunction with FEED MY SHEEP in Columbus.

Find a food pantry.  Donate. 

 

Link arms with the teams that minister to the incarcerated.  At least pray for them.  My dear friends from Patterson Park Church in Beavercreek Ohio visit the MONTGOMERY COUNTY JAIL ONCE a WEEK to share the hope and healing of JESUS with the inmates.  Kairos delivers hope and often a sweet treat to prisoners all over the country, pray for them, support those who are doing the same near you.

 

For when we do things like THURMAN and NANCY DO we help to REBUILD our communities and meet the call of this important passage and mandate from Isaiah.

If you are generous with the hungry

and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,

your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.

I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—

firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden,

a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,

rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,

restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,

make the community livable again. Isaiah 58:10-12 (MSG)

 

Let’s get to WORK!

 

I love you all!

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE