This Advent we’ve heard: It’s not enough to light a candle of Hope, we have to be the candle of Hope in the world. It’s not enough to rejoice over the Spirit bringing life to a dead stump, we have to be people of the Spirit, not people of the stump. It’s not enough to sing “Joy to the World,” we have to bring joy to the world — just like Jesus coming down, we’re not to leave the world the way we find it. Finally, the God of Love will never leave us. No matter what we face in this life, we never have to face it alone — and not only that, but as people in whom the Spirit of God dwells, we’re to bring the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of God to those who need it, pointing them toward Emmanuel: God with us.

Christmas trees were not invented by pagans. Nor are they merely a decoration! From the beginning, they were used to remind us of the story of redemption and the faithfulness of God. Their triangular shape of the fir tree reminded the people of the three persons of the Trinity. The decorations originally pointed to Christian themes. Truly, as the old German (of course!) carol says, “We learn from all your beauty.”

And you might just find, when you combine our love of the Babe in the manger with Dickens’ concern for those less fortunate, that your Christmas celebration can be a tangible way of living out our Mission: “Loving God . . . Loving Others.”

How we celebrate isn’t as important as the fact that we celebrate, because to celebrate is to remember. Each year, we have a season set aside to remind us that God kept His promises. No matter what traditions have grown up around Christmas through the centuries (and I’ll write more about that next week), never forget the reason we celebrate: to remember how God fulfilled His great purposes for humanity by coming to earth in the form of a baby.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And not only that . . . my prayers are that we can cultivate a constant sense of gratitude that Max Lucado writes about: “The grateful heart is like a magnet sweeping over the day, collecting reasons for gratitude.”

This is the beginning of a long conversation we’ll continue over the next several months. In the meantime, keep living the vision: Loving God . . . Loving Others. Trust God for the rest.

The choice to obey or not obey God is up to us as well. I believe Paul had Genesis 4 in mind when he wrote, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12,14). It’s no accident Paul uses words like “dominion” and “rule” – they are echoes from these early chapters of Genesis. Unlike Cain, we have the power of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us say “no” to sin and temptation.

God seeks out fallen sinners, pursuing them, inviting them to repent, desiring their restoration. That’s the kind of God we serve. He seeks us out, and he initiates a relationship by asking a question: Ayyekkah? “Where are you?”

The beautiful, perfect world God created is now a perfect mess. And the greatest loss is being driven out from the presence of God: “therefore the Lord God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken.”

The tempter has been at work for thousands of years and is an expert in what he does. When he “sidles” alongside you, suggesting something you’ve never considered before, don’t even listen to him. Don’t entertain it.

Have you ever wondered what was beyond the borders of Eden? We know that part of the first couple’s punishment was to be banished from the garden, and that the man would spend his days toiling in ground that had a curse on it, battling thorns and thistles, sweating to grow his crops. But were the thorns and thistles a result of the curse or was it just part of the life outside the garden?

Nothing is easy. Life is complicated. Why? Because we made it that way by choosing to live contrary to the way we were created to live. It was true then, and it is true now.

What we have in front of us is a text - a page with words on it. We believe the words are inspired by God. We have to begin by paying attention to what’s on the page and dealing with that first.

So join us in our quest to be faithful stewards and students of the Word! Join us in a quest to carve away the baloney, and dig down using the spades God has blessed us with to uncover the Truth of His word.

Because God loves us, we love God. Because God loves others, we love others. God set the standard way back on Mt. Sinai and demonstrated exactly what that looks like on Mt. Calvary.

Reading and praying the psalms invite us to do the same. If you’ve noticed, I begin most of the prayers I pray with those very words from Exodus 34 - that’s the God we serve! I’d encourage you to memorize them and use them in your prayers as well. When life is going well, use them to celebrate God’s faithfulness. When life isn’t going so well, use them to remind God (and remind yourself) Who God said God would be, and let this be an anchor to your soul in the bad times. And look for other times the psalms quote these words – you might be surprised just how often you see them.

So as you read this week, pay attention to the “you” in the psalms. What does the psalm say about who “you” is or what “you” has done or hasn’t done - or needs to do! Then pause to think about who this “you” is, has been and will be in your own life.

God is always with us. No matter what we face, God is by our side. God doesn’t send us through the valley of the shadow of death with a cheery promise to meet us on the other side! No, God promises to walk with us all the way - “for thou art with me.” The central message of the psalm is the same as the central phrase and the central words, giving us the assurance that no matter what we face in life, we do not face it alone.

If life is going well, and your psalm is a psalm that says “life is good,” then use it to praise God! If life isn’t going so well, and your psalm says “life is awful,” then use your psalm to tell God your troubles. If God has brought you safely through a tough time, and your psalm is one of those that says “life was awful, but look what God has done,” then use it to thank God.

Can you think of other Christian responses to the challenges around us? Can you think of other ways our controlling narrative that Jesus Christ is Lord can shape the way we live in an increasingly lost and out-of-control world?