By show of hands, and I know we are not afraid to raise our hands, how many remember having to write an essay in elementary school entitled “What Christmas Means to Me?” My best friend, Robert, went on ad nauseum about socks: black socks, athletic socks, argyle socks. Robert has retired from the Marine Corp as a Colonel and lives in Iowa now as an attorney so it is safe to say Christmas means something other than socks for him today.

When Charlie Brown asked for the meaning of Christmas, Linus van Pelt got up on stage, stood in a spotlight, and masterfully delivered an excerpt of Luke 2. In all the history of the Peanuts comic strips, films, and televised specials, the one and only time Linus willingly lets go of his security blanket is when he comes to Luke 2:10 and tells how the angel calms the shepherds with the words, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” but that will be a point for another day.

We must be mindful of the miracles without losing sight of the reason why. We have to remember the socks when we get dressed or the outfit will be incomplete. We have to remember His birth or the meaning of why He was here in the first place is lost.

Skip ahead with me to Luke chapter 20 where we will find the parable of the tenants. The landlord repeatedly sends servants to the tenants who are brutalized and rejected. As a last effort he sends his only son. He hopes the tenants will respect and accept his son but they murder him. Over the course of Old Testament history God has been sending Prophets to bring His people back unto Himself but the people reject these messengers time and again. After a four hundred year hiatus what happened? John 6:38 tells us. Jesus came down from Heaven to do the will of the Father. There is the who, the where, and most importantly the why.

What has God wanted since The Fall in Eden? He has been working tirelessly, because you cannot exhaust the omnipotent God, to bring each of us back to Himself. Adam and Eve knew they sinned so they hid and covered themselves in leaves. God went one further. He made a blood sacrifice and better coverings than they had made for themselves. People were blind over the centuries to the efforts made. By show of hands, and I know we are not afraid to raise our hands, how many remember Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling at the Vatican? God and man are reaching out to each other. Think more closely. God’s arm and finger are fully extended, forcefully, commandingly, as if to say “you are the one lost soul that matters to Me”. The man’s arm and finger are limp like celery that has been in the fridge past its prime, leftover salad which should have been discarded days ago, as if to say “yeah, I know you’re there but it’s in my nature to take You for granted”.

Jesus came to reconcile all the world to the Father. He spent time with the sinful, the lost, the ones who needed Him most before becoming our blood sacrifice. A person with 20/20 vision does not need an ophthalmologist. It is the guy with the foreign body in his eye or the detached retina who needs the specialist. The church is not a place for the righteous. If it were, I would not be allowed in. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The church is a hospital for the broken.

What is the purpose of the church? We are, through the foolishness of preaching, as Paul puts it, to communicate the Gospel. The Gospel is the message of reconciliation. This is why He came in the first place. This is Christmas.

The Epistles give instruction to churches and individuals on how to live, worship, and conduct our lives. According to II Corinthians 5, the ministry of reconciliation is committed to each of us. The greatest of all the spiritual gifts, according to I Corinthians 13, is love. What greater gift can there be than hugging that person who was lost and is now found, giving them a shoulder to cry on, and being a support for them?

The happiest people are those who have invested time in others. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. Reach out to someone. According to Matthew 5:22-24, we are to reconcile with a brother before coming to God. The true attitude of the Kingdom, according to Matthew 18:15, is to communicate one on one to gain a brother through reconciliation.

During this process two things will be discovered. The hard part is defeating human nature in that I is the least important word in human relations. The liberating part is finding the joy forgiveness brings in freeing us to interact positively with people.

Do not lose sight of the meaning behind the miracle. The meaning of Christmas does not come once a year. It happens whenever and wherever there is a need to reconcile one to another. We were first called Christians in Antioch because it was there people first acted like Christ. Today the term Christian has become diluted to mean any Gentile. Put the meaning back in Christian. Put the meaning back in Christmas. Live His example. Let your light so shine. Bring someone back to yourself as an example of God bringing people back to Himself. Let the Holy Ghost work through you to bring someone back to Him. If we believe the Gospel, we do must obey it.

Yitzhak (Isaac) N.

When I first heard of this blog, “Being Rebekah”, many images and recollections flooded my head. Who was Rebekah? Is this is metaphor for these women who wish to emulate the qualities of my second matriarch? I remembered what the rabbis taught me regarding descriptions and anecdotes from Torah, Talmud, and Midrash.

Torah tells us, in B’resheit 24, Abraham sent one of his servants back to his people to find a wife for his son, Yitzhak. An angel went ahead of the servant. He prayed for an outward sign which was given by Rebekah bat Bethuel, and the rest as they say is history. Midrash tells us Abraham prayed while the servant was traveling that the woman God would provide would have the qualities God directed him by which to live his life. Talmud tells us exactly what these are: “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to speak kindly to the unfortunate, to act justly towards all mankind, and to be ever grateful to the Eternal”. Separately there are references to modesty but none as clearly described until given by a rabbi generations after Abraham yahrzeit. Luke 14:8-11 tells of one person who honors himself in front of others leading to humiliation and another person who humbles himself in front of everyone leading to being honored publicly.

This is my Rebekah. Everyday she performs her role at work in virtual anonymity with professionalism and to the best of her abilities. Her behind the scenes efforts on behalf of all the other employees, for whom she has genuine concern, can only be described as a ministry.

This is my Rebekah. Everyday she provides strength and encouragement to those who are lacking in one area or the other, or both. She is a living example of God’s love, understanding, and forgiveness. There are Christians, as the world uses it as a label, but she is a Christian, as the honored title given to those in Antioch.

This is my Rebekah. She puts God first, above all things, living as closely to the Gospel of Emanuel bar Yosef in obedience and submission as being human allows. Her focus is on others, in many cases to the point of self sacrifice. She puts herself last so much this effort has become a habit which has become her lifestyle. It is to the point that when anyone does something for her she has a feeling of being unworthy, has a sense of embarrassment, and is disproportionately thankful.

My Rebekah is very much the way I imagine Isaac’s wife to have been: a tremendous blessing and gift of God, a help-mate, a strength, a compliment to my weaknesses and failings, and (most of all) my encouragement to continue building a relationship with the Eternal I Am.

Yitzhak (Isaac) N.

Editor’s Note:  Our weekly guest spot is our effort to help our reading community connect with each other.  “Being Isaac” is in response to our growing number of male readers. We think it’s important that there’s a male reply to our female’s call to live in passionate pursuit of Christ. Thanks StephenWhoElse for another great post delving into understanding who can we trust? The answer is in the post 🙂 Enjoy readers! 🙂  

For without consulting me,
    you have gone down to Egypt for help.
You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.
    You have tried to hide in his shade.
But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated,
    and by depending on him, you will be disgraced – Isaiah 30:2-3

We know all about trust. We teach it to our kids – so we ought to know better don’t we? I wanted to see if this was true – that we are qualified to teach our children who to trust, so I tried to compile the lists below:

List #1 – People we instinctively trust because they are closest to us!

• grandparents
• father / mother
• brothers / sisters
• cousins
• aunts and uncles
• pastors / church elders

List #2 – People we kind of trust, because our normal way of life depends on us trusting them

• police
• firemen
• doctors
• teachers
• grocer
• barber
• the guy at the checkout
• waiters
• and virtually anyone who serves you

List #3 – People who require you to take a gigantic leap of faith and the parting of the Red Sea before you are willing to trust them

• consultants
• door-to-door salesmen
• telesales people
• politicians
• The Nigerian who offered to share his US$10 million inheritance with you
• dentists

Ok maybe not dentists, I’m just biased against them. (“This won’t hurt sir.”  ”Really? Grea…Aaargh!”)

So here’s the point – in every list, I’m 100% sure you can find exceptions to it. There are parents who have abused children. Church leaders who have embezzled money. Policemen who took bribes. Waiters who clone credit cards belonging to customers.  On the other hand, there are trustworthy and honest politicians and sincere sales people. The Nigerian scammer I’m pretty sure cannot be trusted.

So who can we trust?  (I’m sure you saw this coming) God of course!

God didn’t say that we are to trust no one – but we need to trust Him first. The ancient Israelites, fearing an invasion from their enemies, sought protection from Egypt instead of trusting in the Lord. This was wrong on so many accounts

• God already promised protection: “Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
  he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” (Isaiah 31:5) Going to the Egyptians for help is snubbing God’s offer of protection.
• The Egyptians have no motivation to help – they are rich and powerful enough without the alliance with Israel.
• and the worst of all, they seem to have forgotten that God delivered them out of slavery from the Egyptians! Going back to Egypt for help is akin to returning to their old ways. What an insult!

There are a few things we need to do

• We need the wisdom of God to discern if someone can be trusted. Pray and listen before committing.
• We ourselves need to be trustworthy, as it is written in Matthew 5:37 “Let your Yes be simply Yes, and your No be simply No; anything more than that comes from the evil one.”
• Teach our children to trust God – not simply by telling them, but by living a life that testifies to this truth:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

Trusting in God is not just for obedience’s sake. We have His guarantee that His love will surround those who trust Him. (Psalm 32:10)

And you can trust me on this! 

StephenWhoElse is a Sunday School Teacher and in his spare time he has a secular and less interesting job. He endeavors to write only what He reveals to him and gives all glory to God! See the original post at http://10seventeen.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/who-can-you-trust/

Editor’s Note:  Our weekly guest spot is our effort to help our reading community connect with each other. “Being Isaac” is in response to our growing number of male readers. We think it’s important that there’s a male reply to our female’s call to live in passionate pursuit of Christ. Thanks Joshua T for a great post on how God is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. 

Today we are going to diverge from the series we have been doing on Moses’ story. We are, instead, going to look at something that has been on my heart to write about this week.

Friends. We all want to have them. In schools, there is always the popular crowd and then there is everyone else. We all seek to be accepted by others no matter who you are.

I believe C S Lewis said it best when he said, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

We often forget, including myself, that we have a friend that will never forsake us, forget about us, or be mean to us. God has been since the beginning. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ” And since the beginning He has loved us. The Bible clearly explains, “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Psalms 86:15)

In the Bible, there is a fantastic example of God’s faithfulness. It begins in Genesis. We begin be meeting Abraham. “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on— since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” (Genesis 18:1-5)

As we continue reading, We well see why this is a great example of God’s faithfulness.

Genesis 18:9-15 states, “They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too hard for the Lord ? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

Sarah had little faith. She didn’t believe He could do it. Psalms 147:5 reads, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”

We finish off the story in Genesis 21:1-2, “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.”

We often forget that God has been with us through everything and no friend can ever come close. So although we seek to be appreciated be others, remember God always loves. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

See the original post at: http://flameministries.wordpress.com/tag/constant-friend/

Joshua T is a graphic designer in training who is seeking to glorify God in everything he does. He enjoys listening to music, such as Thousand Foot Krutch, KJ-52, and Relient K. Joshua also appreciates hanging out with his friends, and writing sermons for his blog, http://flameministries.wordpress.com/.

Published with the permission of the author. Submit your own post at beingrebekah@outlook.com. 

Editor’s Note:  Our weekly guest spot is our effort to help our reading community connect with each other.  “Being Isaac” is in response to our growing number of male readers. We think it’s important that there’s a male reply to our female’s call to live in passionate pursuit of Christ. Thanks Isaac H for submitting another great post- this one speaking on his personal journey on reaching people in a radical way. God may not call all of us to live in such a radical fashion, but may we all be willing to step out how He wants us to when He wants. 

Have you ever had God ask you to do something really crazy? Like really crazy?? I did. I know not everyone can believe my story because it is unusual, but I feel as long as I follow after God and do what He ask me to do, then I not have to worry what other people think.

I had been fasting and praying for several days when God speak to me. He told me, “I want you to take out your contact lens and not wear any glasses for six month.”  I ask why He want me do this. He say, “When the people ask you why you not wear the glasses, you will tell them they are spiritually blind. You will tell them they need to get ready. The Lord is coming back soon.” I said, “I not can tell them this. They all will think I have lose the mind!” But God said, “You can.”

I decide to ask my mentor in America what he think about this. Does God ever ask him to do very strange thing like this. He said, God never have ask him to do this kind of thing, but if need confirmation to do maybe ask my pastor. He always teach me it is important to be under authority of your pastor.

So I ask my pastor and my pastor tell me God have already let him know that He would ask me to do some strange things that not many people have see before.  My pastor marked the calendar on his ipad and made me take out my contact lenses that same night!

I was afraid going home that night. It was hard to see. It was hard to read the signs. The familiar path suddenly seem very unfamiliar. The coming days were all very challenging to me. It was hard to see, it was hard to walk, and it was hard to read the emotion on people’s faces. But mostly, it was hard because the message I have to share. Almost every day someone notice I not see too well and ask me why I not wear the glasses. Because so many people notice, almost every day I have to give the message of be spiritually blind; the message to get ready.

I think this message would be very hard to give anywhere, but is especially hard to give in my country. In my country is so important not to lose the face, not to cause someone else lose the face, and to give face and save face. So people here is not too direct. We say things in very subtle way. This message God give me is so direct. It is a very hard message to give.  So every day I deal with the rejection. I meet the scorn. My direct message is cause them and me all to lose the face. And it make me sound very crazy. Almost every reaction I get is negative. People really think I have lose the mind. I can understand this reaction, but is still hard to take when it happen so much.

But two time now, I have see the grace of God work through this message! One was a young woman I meet on way to lunch meeting. I was try to read the sign, but struggle because not can see. This young woman see me struggle and she read the sign for me. I quickly go the direction I need, but then she say why you not wear glasses? So I have to tell her God’s message. I was frustrated from all the rejection and I was frustrated from not seeing and I was frustrated because be late to the meeting so when I tell her, it was not in very nice way, it was in frustrated way I bark at her “You all are spiritually blind!” I was already expect her negative reaction and start to walk away. Thank God, He can still speak to people even when the messenger is so unfit! She surprise me by asking, “What do you mean?” So I say you need to get ready. She say, “get ready for what?” My tone is much softer now and I say, “You need to get ready for God. He is coming back soon.” She say, “What God is coming back soon?” So I tell her about Jesus. And eventually I tell her where my church is and when we have service. I was amazed when the coming Sunday she show up! In just a few services she was receive His spirit and get baptize in His name! She is now regular attending our church! Praise the Lord. This young woman have no idea what joy she bring to my spirit when she decide to give her life to Jesus! Every rejection was worth it for this one soul to come to know Him!!

Now, I have meet another person through this message God give me. This time I was on the street and I fell down because I could not see the step. So many people just walk by and not care I am hurt, but finally an old grandma came to help me. She ask me why I not wear the glasses. I tell her because God told me not to. She say, “What God tell you this?” I say, “Jesus”. She say, “You are the Christian then?” I say yes. And she ask me, “Why would God tell you not to wear the glasses if it mean you are going to hurt yourself?” I say to her, “So that I would have the opportunity to speak to you.” And I talk to her about God and gave her the information to our church.

This old grandma has come to the church for five times now! The first few service she just sit there. She doesn’t seem to listen to the sermon at all. She doesn’t seem to be interested at all. I not can see her respond to God at all, but she keep coming. This past week when she came, I saw her sing the worship song. It was not much, but it was MUCH! I saw her start to respond. I am praying she will continue respond and she will get baptized and commit herself to be a Christian and be saved!!

It is not easy to give God’s message. It is not easy to be rejected. But it is worth it! It is better to please God than try to please people. Every soul is so precious to God. God love every soul and not want see one perish. So many soul in my country is lost. They are in bondage to enemy and not even know it! They need Jesus.

If God ask you to do something, do not be afraid to do. He will give you strength and courage to do it. He will help you. You will find even if it is hard, it will be worth it for the Kingdom.

Isaac H lives in Taiwan and loves playing with his daughter while living for Christ with all he has.