How Might God Surprise You This Christmas?

Dear Friends,
More than 2,000 years ago, no one was prepared for God to actually do what had been predicted by the prophets. It was easier to believe that a Messiah, a Savior, would come someday than to think that it could happen in their lifetime.

Reactions to this surprise vary between believing it is from God and immediately submitting, like Mary.  Or like Joseph who initially decided to quickly dispense with the discomfort by assuming someone has done something wrong.

Part of the surprise was the original cast of characters God chose. Mary was an unwed teenager who had "never known a man." She likely thought of herself as a poor prospect for motherhood. Joseph was a descendant of religious leaders, surely expecting a traditional marriage before fatherhood. Herod was a paranoid political figure. The Magi were foreigners, educated scientists of the day, who were not a part of the Jewish faith. The shepherds were just regular working folk, unlikely to be esteemed in religious circles because they could not keep all the ceremonial laws. Who out of that cast would expect to be chosen?

Once upon a time, God interrupted the lives of people to make them part of a special story. Those of us who remember the story are also part of it. During Advent we prepared for Christmas not merely as a ritual but as a hoped-for divine interruption. We looked to recognize, in the interruption of our routines, a chance to see God's arrival again. We are hoping that God will use us so that we can help others to find their way to Jesus. We are hoping that as our families get together, as we personally ponder in our hearts (as Mary did) all the facets of the Christmas story, God will use us to do something extraordinary in the world again.

I ran into a young woman the other day, who I had met working at a Starbucks and then later at a local restaurant. I had been looking for the chance to invite her to our Christmas Eve services…she didn’t know I was a pastor, just a guy who always ordered peppermint mochas and remembered her name. So I told her what I did and gave her our Re-Discover Christmas brochure and invited her to our services. And… the unexpected happened… she said, “I really need this. I need to be there”.

I am praying that God will continue to draw this young woman closer to himself this Christmas. I am hoping that she will “ponder’ in her heart what it would mean for her to find forgiveness, hope and faith this Christmas.

I also am thankful for each of you here at Bel Air Church. Thank you for your generous support for God’s work through Bel Air and all the families that you are touching with the hope, grace and love of Jesus Christ. May you experience God’s Holy Spirit living in you and your family this Christmas.

Merry Christmas,
Barry

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 12-19-2010

I'm sure we're all saying that as we look out of our windows on this Thursday afternoon. Snow is in the air and it makes us think of Christmas. I would hope that each of us realize that we'll miss the point of the story of Christmas if it's just about the snow, the gifts, and getting your Christmas to do list completed.

This Sunday, we will take a look at Joseph and the challenges that his choice to follow God's will would mean for him. It wasn't easy to make a choice to stay with Mary. It would've been easy for him to follow the whims of the world, but instead he chose to follow God's will. This Christmas we live in a world with many challenges - homelessness, war, poverty and death – to name a few. A great Christian writer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote these words from a German prison in 1943. He had lost good friends to the war. He was imprisoned and separated from those he loved. Evil was all around him, but he believed his Christmas was going to be "exceptionally good."

"I think we're going to have an exceptionally good Christmas. The very fact that outward circumstance precludes our making provision for it will show whether we can be content with what is truly essential. I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious ... The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we perceive that our hearts should be Christ's home on earth."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer chose to follow Jesus. His faithfulness is a witness to us. As we read Joseph’s story this Sunday (Matthew 1:18-25), it will remind us that we need to choose to follow Jesus in the good times and in the tough times. It is my hope that each of us, this Christmas season, would begin to and continue to look a lot like Christ.

In Jesus,
Barry

ENOUGH! - 11-5-2010

ENOUGH! I know that I heard my Mom say that more than once to me. Enough Already! It usually was some behavior I was doing that was getting out of hand. Maybe it was one too many questions about something. Maybe it was time to turn off the TV and I needed to go to bed. Maybe it was pestering one of my sisters and it needed to stop before it got out of control.

When we say, "Enough!," it means that we have all that we need or we have too much of something. Change needs to happen after we say, "Enough"!

I will be starting a new sermon series this Sunday called "Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity." It will help us to focus on both our need to say "Enough" to a society that tells us more is better and to believe when God says that there is "Enough" when we become generous.

Our Finance Chairperson, Tony Ciampaglio, noticed that the Upper Room devotional for Wednesday fits nicely into the theme of our new series! You can read that devotional at

http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?month=11&day=3&year=2010

I encourage you to sign up for the free daily Upper Room email at the bottom of that page.

Of course, I have had "enough" of typing with one hand this week! Only four more weeks until I hope I can get my cast off!

In Jesus,
Barry

Cultivating Contentment 11-21-2010

Cultivating Contentment is the theme of my message this week! When we are considering the battle that we as followers of Jesus have with a culture that tells us that what we have right now isn't enough, and we need to spend more money and buy more "stuff" in order to find contentment...what did Jesus say?

"Life is not measured by how much you own." Luke 12:15 (NLT) Contentment is a great virtue for us when it comes to many areas of our lives.

At the same time, we need to have DISCONTENTMENT in other areas. Jesus challenges us not to be satisfied with just loving Jesus. We need to be discontented about people being far from Him. We need to be discontented about people being homeless. We need to be discontented that there are huge numbers of people in the Abingdon area who don't know Christ! We need to be discontented with church as normal that doesn't include us reaching out to our neighbors and friends who are disconnected from Christ.

We know there is hope in Jesus for every man, woman, youth and child. That is why we do what we do at 21 Linwood Ave and why we are sending out The Vine to a new place of ministry. I want to remind you why we are doing The Vine! Watch this video from March 2008 that Toni Pitrat created which cast the hope and vision for what is now the The Vine. Listen, read and pray!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v1ElEJqw_c&feature=youtu.be
In Jesus,


Barry

PS I am counting on you to prayerfully commit to our ministry in 2010 and step forward for a second gift for The Vine. We can do this by being content with what we have and give away what we might have spent on ourselves.