The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Fish or Talk?

A Fish and Game Warden had a friend who was quite the fisherman. The friend would go fishing almost every day. Day in and day out he came back in a very short time from his day on the lake having caught his limit. The Warden’s curiosity grew, but he didn’t want his friend to think he suspected anything was wrong so he asked his friend if he could go fishing with him. The man was happy to bring him along. Once the boat had come to rest and the anchor dropped the Warden began to bate a hook while the friend reached into a box under his seat. He pulled out a stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and handed it to the Warden saying, “Just toss this out a ways and you’ll get more fish than you can imagine.”
The Warden was shocked and said, “I can’t do that. It’s illegal!”

As the fuse had almost burned down, the friend replied, “Well, are you gonna’ fish or just talk!”

A lot of people claim to know about the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, but for some reason they have never claimed the explosive power that is the Resurrection. Jesus said, Because I live, you also will live.
-John 14:19.

The Apostle Paul claimed this incredible power which made a powerful difference in his life every day.  The power had changed him from a persecutor of Christ Followers to a passionate missionary for Christ. He was a man of dynamic faith and testimony. In Philippians 3:10-11 he wrote, “II want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

When you think about the “Easter Story” do you consider it to be nothing more than just a “really nice story”? Do you take comfort in knowing Jesus is no longer in the grave? Or have you been empowered by receiving all that God has for you through such an amazing, game changing, event in your own life?
Are you gonna fish or just talk?

This Sunday is Resurrection Sunday! Great celebrations will go on at FCC and in the homes of our church family members. But I can’t wait to bring you a message at the 8:00AM Sunrise Celebration that I have titled, “Explode Into Life” from Philippians 3:10-14. We will talk about how Christ’s Resurrection in yours and my lives can bring dynamic power to our lives for every day. Plan to attend and bring your friends and neighbors to this potentially life empowering day. I’m also Excited about the very special Gospel presentation that will be presented at 10:30AM by our Resurrection Choir titled, ARISE MY SOUL, HE IS RISEN! This is the first Cantata we have had in many years. God has worked in the writers of this presentation and in the members of this choir for the presentation. Plan to celebrate our Explosive Jesus!

Empowered by him,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Good News and Bad News about Palm Sunday

John and his friend George went golfing together one Saturday morning as they had for 24 years. They were fanatics about their golf game. Later that day, John returned home completely exhausted and plopped down in his easy chair. His wife was quite concerned since he was more exhausted than usual after his Saturday golf game.

She asked him if something went wrong with the game. He replied, "No, I had the best game in years!

As a matter of fact, I started out the first three holes at 4 under par, including a hole-in-two on the 3rd." "So why are you so worn out?" she asked. "Well, George had a heart attack and died on the 4th hole."

"What!? Are you so exhausted from trying to save him?" He said, "No, honey, it was quick and there was nothing anyone could’ve done. BUT AFTER THAT, IT WAS JUST HIT THE BALL, DRAG GEORGE, HIT THE BALL, DRAG GEORGE..."

The good news is: John had a great game of golf! The bad news was George-- Dead and dragged all over the golf course!

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem it was as if the local team had just won the Super Bowl. Ancient historian, Josephus, says that there could have been very nearly 3 million people in town that day, celebrating the coming of the Messiah. That people were throwing palm branches and coats in the pathway of Jesus of Nazareth as he rode the donkey colt. They were crying out thing like, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” or “Hosanna” (meaning save us, Lord) or “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” all praises to the anointed one of God for whom their people had been expecting to come for centuries.
 
Sadly, about 4 days later the same people were crying out for his blood. He would be beaten, mocked, humiliated and crucified naked on a cruel cross. Oh, how fickle people can be.

His greatest day of admiration turned into the most painful days ever.  But there is better news. 3 days later he would turn the world upside down by his resurrection from the dead.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday! We will celebrate our Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. Come join us as we share a message titled, “Hosanna! The King is Coming” based on Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 118:25-29 and Revelation 19:11-16. Bring someone with you to experience a unique presentation of the Gospel.

Hosanna!
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Good People at Church?

She had seldom been to church a day of her life. In fact, she never thought she would ever go to church, but someone invited her and she came. Much to her surprise, she loved it! Not only that, but she heard the message of Christ’s love and grace instead of one of “I’m good! You’re bad, and you don’t belong here!” that she had always thought she would find at church! She realized that Jesus was the answer for her life and surrendered her life to him and was baptized on her third visit! She and her young children never missed a Sunday. Then the devil tried to creep in. The complaints came to the church board, “Her dresses are too short. It’s a distraction to the men who are serving the Lord’s Supper.” “Someone needs to talk to her.”

The young preacher said, “She’s a new Christian. Give her some time to figure out what is appropriate. Short dresses may be all she has to wear that are dressy.” Thankfully, the complainers held off and she began to show up in less provocative attire and the complaints faded. This is a true story from my early ministry.

Where did we get the idea that church was for “good people?” I don’t think we got that from Jesus. Perhaps it came from his greatest enemies, the Pharisees. John’s account of the confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus in John 8:2-11 is a classic example.
The religious leaders (Pharisees) brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the very act of adultery. The text does not mention her clothing, but we can assume that she was likely not in the conservative apparel most commonly worn by Jewish women in the first century. Pulled from the bed of another adulterer, a man, who was conspicuously absent from the scene, the woman was brought straight to Jesus so that he could render a judgment on her sin. To the shock of the men who had brought her to Jesus, exposing her to public disgrace, he turned the tables on them by holding up a mirror through which they were forced to see their own sin. They had not anticipated this kind of self exposure. But, Jesus wasn’t interested in their little moralistic “gotcha” games. Read the story and see what I mean.

From the beginning of time, sin has been a part of the human condition. The devil has sifted each of us with his crafty tricks. He knows where we are weak and, no matter how hard we try to get it right, we have a knack for caving in to those deceptive moves. Yet, for some reason, we try to put on the mask of perfection, especially at church. One of the sneakiest ways we can do this is to point out the “obvious sins” of others. But this leads to arrogance, which the Bible points out is just another sin for us to commit. OOPS!

The church is not a museum to display perfect saints. The church is a hospital for sinners. When someone says they can’t go to church because they are sinful, you can tell them, “Hey! You will fit right in!” You’ve heard the true saying, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven!” God loves and wants sinners in His church. He sent his Son to die for sinners. When you see people at church that don’t seem to fit that “perfect” picture you envisioned of church people, you can know that we are all in the same boat. “I was sinking deep in sin, but love lifted me.”

This Sunday I will present a message connected with this, titled, Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin, based on John 8:2-11. I hope you will bring someone who needs to know the love and grace of Jesus with you.

Imperfect, but loved,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
A Matter of Submission

A family living out on the prairie had a buggy with a well-trained horse to pull it. The horse followed every command it was given But one day someone came up with the brilliant idea to train a mule to pull that buggy. The man who was training the mule had a bull whip and knew how to use it. When that mule was hooked up to the buggy, he began to kick. The owners thought that bull whip would teach him otherwise. So, the more he kicked, the more they whipped. And the more they whipped, the more he kicked. It went on for hours. At the end of the day, the mule had learned nothing. The buggy had been kicked to pieces. Are you like the horse or the mule? That mule was not meek. The horse was just as powerful, but he was meek.

When we are meek in spirit, God can direct us and use us. There were two fundamental differences between the horse and the mule. The horse trusted his master; the mule did not. The horse was submitted to his master; the mule was not.

Ephesians 3:20 says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

When we are fully submitted to Jesus, he can impower us to do amazing things for him.
This Sunday Josh will be delivering a message to the FCC family titled, Strength Under Control based on Matthew 5:5. Plan to be there and be given this special message Jesus shared in his Sermon on the Mount.

Striving to be under His control,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
True Riches

A tax officer asked an old man to declare his wealth. The Old man declared his riches like this:

• A mansion in heaven
• Everlasting life
• Peace that passes all understanding
• Joy unspeakable
• Devine love that never fails
• A crown of life
• A faithful wife
• Healthy, Happy & obedient children
• Loyal friends
• Songs in the night

The tax officer closed his book and said: “Truly you are a very rich man. But your wealth is not subject to taxation.”
As we have worked through the past 40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life, we have learned some very important lessons about generosity. We have discovered the following…

• Generous Giving Allows You to See God as Your Provider
• Generous Giving Allows You to Overcome Financial Fear and Worry
• Generous Giving Allows You to Bring Order to Your Finances
• Generous Giving Allows You to Fight the Dragon of Materialism

 
And this Sun day we will examine a 5th benefit of Generous giving with… Generous Giving Allows You to Experience True Financial Freedom based on 2 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Matthew 6:19-21.

We have not been badgered or placed on guilt trips to give. We have not been threatened with hell or made to think we were making God angry if we don’t tithe. We have been taught the blessing of giving generously to God’s work and to experience the abundance we receive through generosity.

We have been challenged to test God in the only place where God allows such testing through Malachi 3:10 when He says, Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

As we close our series, we are being issued a challenge to put God to the test by “Trying the Tithe.” If you try the tithe (give the tenth or your income).God will not let you go without, simply because you were generous. Please be in prayer about this great challenge and seek God’s leading in this matter.

Truly rich where it counts,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Giving with a Mind for God’s Mission

Hudson Taylor was a well-known missionary to China. While preparing for overseas mission work as a medical student in London, he came upon a poor family. The man asked him to pray for his family. The family was living under the stairs. His wife was so sick she could not even sit-up. The oldest was holding a newborn baby who was very weak from lack of nutrition. The rest of the 5 children were all skin and bones from lack of food. Hudson prayed for them but felt the need to help them physically, but all he had was the money for his rent, which was due the next day. He did not even have money for his own food. Hudson gave it all to the man. Hudson went home thinking what a foolish thing he had done. If he could not pay the rent, he too would be homeless. He prayed about it and prepared himself to appeal to the landlord for an extension. The next day, late in the morning he heard the landlord coming up the stairs. Hudson prepared himself for confrontation. The landlord knocked on his door and he opened it.  The landlord handed him a letter and said, "your rent is due today" and left to do other things. Hudson had no opportunity to appeal for an extension. He opened the letter to read it still with an empty stomach. Inside the letter said, "We hope this will be of use to you." Inside was enough money for his rent and food.

You see, Hudson Taylor had a missionary heart. Long before he began his decades of service in China, he was sensitive to the needs of others around him. He learned through his experience with this poor family that God will always provide for the generous, mission minded follower of Christ.

I shared this beautiful story last Sunday in my devotional for Sunday Night Alive. The past three weeks we have been traveling through a series of messages on our Stewardship toward God in a 40 Day Journey Toward a More Generous Life.

I hope that we can learn of how God’s generosity toward us is vastly more extravagant that our own could ever be. He has always provided for those who trust him through their own generosity.

This Sunday we will look at Part 4 of our sermon series with a message titled; Generous Giving Allows You to Fight the Dragon of Materialism based on Luke 12:15-21; 1Timothy 6:6-10; Haggai 1. I hope you have been praying and contemplating our special Try The Tithe Sunday coming up on March 8. God always takes care of his most generous people.

Seeking a more generous life,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
What Is Your Attitude Toward Money?

Our attitudes and habits concerning money begin their development in the early years of our lives, often through observing our parents and other adults.

One day a young boy was with his mother at the grocery store and as they were checking out, the cashier handed the boy a candy bar. The little boy’s mother said what parents often say: “What do you say to the cashier, son?” The little boy replied, “Charge it!” (Likely, his mom was looking for “thank you”)

On another occasion a young girl was with her mother at the ATM and her mother was letting her push the right buttons. When the money was dispensed into the tray, the little girl squealed excitedly, “Look, Mommy, we won!” (We might wish it worked that way!)

The Wall Street Journal published an article with an anonymous quote that defined money as “an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven, and as a universal provider of everything except happiness.” The writer might have added that money is also a provoker of covetousness and competition, and it is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.

What the Bible said so long ago is still true: The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10).

Clement of Alexandra, a Christian theologian born in the 2nd century, said: “Wealth is like a viper, which is harmless if a person knows how to take hold of it; but if they do not, it will entwine round his hand and bite him.”

Billy Graham said: “If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of his life.”

We have been wandering as a church family through a series of messages titled, A 40 Day Journey to a More Generous Life with the help of the daily devotions available through our 40 Days App (downloaded free from App Store on your phone using the words givewithjoy). We are learning biblical concepts about generosity. The devotions can be read or listened to through audio. The sermons have been explaining ways generous giving may strengthen our financial and spiritual lives.

You know, Jesus talked about money more than any other subject because he saw how our attitude toward material possessions indicate the place God holds in our lives. My father used to say, “If you want to know what a person’s priorities are, just take a look at the check register in his checkbook.”

Your attitude toward God will guide your use of earthly resources, including money. This Sunday we will continue our series of messages with Generous Giving… (Part 3) …Allows You to Bring Order to Your Finances based on Proverbs 23:4-5; Deuteronomy 14:22-23; Proverbs 3:9; Malachi 3:10-11. Keep praying for God to guide you and direct your stewardship of the material blessing God has provided.

Striving for generous living,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Whose Money Is it Anyway?

A man went in to see a banker about a loan.
Banker: How much would you like to borrow?
Man: One Million Dollars
Banker: That’s a lot of money.
Man: Is that a problem? I could go talk with a bank that has more money if I need to.
Banker: On no it’s no problem at all. We loan large sums of money all the time.
Man: That’s good.
Banker: Sir what do you intend to use as collateral?
Man: Collateral? What’s that?
Banker: That’s property or other assets you use as a guarantee for the loan. Should you default on the loan, the bank would be legally entitled to the collateral to pay off the loan.
Man: Oh, well I’m not giving you any collateral. You can’t have MY STUFF it belongs to me.
Banker: I see. Tell me sir what do you intend to do with this money?
Man: That’s none of your business what I do with my money. I’m going to be a millionaire and I’ll do as I please with my money.
Banker: I see. Sir what type of work do you do?
Man: Work?
Banker: Yes, where are you employed?
Man: Oh I don’t need a job cuz I’m going to be a millionaire, so I don’t work.
Banker: I see, so what do you do all day?
Man: I do as I please. If I feel like sleeping in, I do, if I want to watch TV then I do that. As a millionaire I can do anything I want to.
Banker: I see, sir how do you intend to repay this loan?
Man: What do you mean repay the loan?
Banker: Well you see sir; you have an obligation to give the money back to the bank with interest.
Man: Interest? What’s that?
Banker: That’s the percentage rate we charge you for having the loan from the bank. It’s the amount you pay the bank for the loan
Man: Oh well I’m not going to pay you anything for my money and I’m not going to give any of it back either. My million dollars is for me not you.
Banker: I see; sir we have a name for people like you.
Man: Yea I know—millionaire!
Banker: No sir, you’re a thief.
Man: Why I’m not a criminal! I’ve never been so insulted in all my life; I’m taking my business elsewhere!

So do you think this guy will ever get his loan and be a millionaire? One thing is for sure, if he ever does get the money at least, he’s an honest thief!

Some people treat God like this man treated the bank. They think the material things and money in their possession belongs to them, when, in reality, everything we have is on loan from God. In fact, more than our material blessing belong to him. Our families and even our very selves belong to him.

Many people read Malachi 3:10 and see the blessing God has for those who tithe. But, do you know why God commanded his people to bring the whole tithe to his storehouse? If you read the verses that precede this one you find God asking his people why they are robbing him of what rightfully belongs to him. The tithe was commanded as an expression of the fact that we know that we, and everything we have, belong to him.

The concept of tithing (giving 10% of our earnings) is not just in the Bible. Ancient Kings commanded tithes, taxes, from their citizens as an expression of loyalty to their thrones. This is why we call giving to God, “stewardship.” A steward is someone responsible for the care and increase in value of his/her Master’s possessions. God has given us the role of caring for the material possessions that he has provided to us along with our family members and anything else placed in our hands.

We must be careful to remember that when we are tempted to claim it all our own. By giving generously, we demonstrate his ownership of all.

We continue this Sunday with part two of our series 40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life with a message titled Generous Giving… (Part 2) …allows you to overcome financial fear and worry based on 1 Kings 17:10-16; Genesis 28:20-22; Matthew 6:24. Don’t forget to download your daily devotional app from your App Store with the code givewithjoy. The devotionals are available in print or audio.

Your fellow steward,
Jon


 

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Generosity Began with God

One of my favorite childhood movies is the 1965 classic Shenandoah, set at the beginning of the American Civil War. James Stewart played the role of Charlie Anderson, a widower and the patriarch of a successful southern plantation that operated without the use of slaves. Living in the South, Anderson did not believe in slavery, nor did he believe in war. Yet, despite his efforts to keep his family shielded from the conflict, he was ultimately unsuccessful. Anderson was not a follower of Christ, but he dearly loved his late wife. In honoring her dying wish, he tried to uphold Christian traditions for his family. This was the reason the family attended church and why Anderson always led the family in prayer before meals. However, his words during prayer revealed his true beliefs: “Lord, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. It wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway for this food we are about to eat. Amen”

While we may not pray in exactly the same way as Stewart’s character, we often live with a similar mindset. We act as if everything we have is ours solely because of our own efforts, believing that what we possess is for our use and purposes alone. We tend to think, “It’s mine! All mine!”

God as the Source of Our Blessings
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 provides God’s perspective on this attitude: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”

Charlie Anderson did not realize that his land, his physical strength, his family, the weather, the quality of the soil, everything he knew about farming, and many other factors contributing to his success were all gifts from God. Without God, he would have nothing. He had been blessed far beyond what he could ever deserve.

Transformation Through Loss and Faith
As the story unfolds in the movie, Charlie’s resistance to the war is tested as his family suffers devastating losses due to its impact. The turning point comes when his youngest son—the one who reminds him most of his beloved wife—is kidnapped, leaving Charlie in utter despair. At what seems like the darkest moment, Charlie and the remaining members of his family attend church. As the service begins, the son whom Charlie believed to be dead walks through the church doors, limping with a crutch. Overcome with emotion, Charlie breaks down in tears as his son returns to their family’s pew. In the end, Charlie comes to faith and finally understands what his wife had always known: that everything he had was a result of God’s mercy and grace.

Invitation to a Spiritual Journey
This Sunday, our FCC family will embark on a season of study, devotion, and prayer through a program called “A 40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life.” This program, designed by Pastor Brian Kluth—author of a 40-Day Devotional Guide by the same name—comes with a free app for your phone or computer. The app includes the devotionals, videos, and other resources. For those who prefer listening, each devotional also has an audio reading by the author. To access these resources, simply visit your app store and search for givewithjoy (no spaces or capitals).

Our Sunday morning messages will complement this theme with a series entitled Generous Giving. The first part, “Generous Giving Allows You to See God as Your Provider,” based primarily on Deuteronomy 8:17-18, 1 Chronicles 29:14-17, and Matthew 6:24.

Please join in praying for this campaign, which runs from February 8 through March 7. Pray for our church family and for yourself, that the Holy Spirit will move powerfully in our hearts and inspire us to be more generous than ever before. On March 7, we will conclude with a special event: TRY THE TITHE SUNDAY. On this day, everyone will be invited to try tithing for the first time. Some already practice tithing regularly and even go beyond it; to those, we encourage you to continue your faithful practice.

For those who have not yet made tithing a consistent part of their financial plan, we encourage you to test God’s promise, as offered in Malachi 3:10: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

Reflecting on God’s Generosity
When considering our own generosity, it is important not to compare ourselves to others. Instead, we should reflect on how generous God has been to us, beginning with the gift of His only begotten Son, who died to offer us eternal life.

Praying for generosity,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Playing Second Fiddle

Leonard Bernstein was once asked which instrument was the most difficult to play. He thought for a moment and then replied, "The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm - that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony."

In Romans 12:10b Paul writes: “Honor one another above yourselves.” You may recall verse 3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you, Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

There is a common attitude in Christian circles that the walk with Christ is really “all about me.” We fail to realize that God intends our faith to be about “HIM” and about “WE.”

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he told them there were two and both were about love. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

The way Jesus and Paul taught love was for us to put others above ourselves. As He put it in Matthew 20:16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

When we honor others we give them first place. The result is God puts us in first place. As Bernstein explained the orchestra just isn’t an orchestra without a second fiddle. You may think that first is the most important, but the one playing harmony moves the sound from a solo to an orchestra. The church is God’s orchestra. We must support each other and prop each other up. When that begins to happen, we find tremendous success in honoring our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and continuing His mission in us of building his eternal kingdom.  Let’s see how we each can do in the role of “second fiddle.”

I hope that you will be with us Sunday morning as we share a message based on Romans 12:10 titled, “Honor One Another.” Bring your family and friends to learn more about what it is like being in the Family of God! This will also be our annual Family Get-together, officially called Congregational Meeting. There will be brief ministry reports and election of church leaders. It is a short meeting that will be held right after a slightly cut back worship service. I’ll see you there.

More than just fiddling around,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Stuck in Yesterday

She may have missed the point of New Year’s Resolutions. With an eagerness to make some changes in the area of financial habits, the lady called her credit card company and said, "I’d like to pay off my Master Card. Do you take Visa?"

Old habits die hard. Many of them are conditioned from childhood. Have you ever noticed how often you find yourself uttering the same words you once criticized your parents for saying? You look in the mirror and see that same look your mother or father used to give you that made you cringe in anger. But there it is. You have become your parents.

Some of those old habits were developed in your early years of adulthood when you were going through hard times or when you were following your own ways. Sadly, the old habits, the old ways of doing things can become almost sacred to your life. You excuse them by saying, “That’s just who I am!”

The old hymn, “Just As I Am,” has often given us comfort to know that God accepts us in our current condition, You know, “tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt;” “fightings and fears within without;” “poor, wretched blind;” “oh, Lamb of God I come.”

What we often forget is that the song ultimately tells us that God takes me just as I am, but the purpose is to change me into something completely different. He wants to give us “sight, riches, healing of the mind” or “welcome, pardon, cleanse relieve” or “to rid my soul of one dark blot.”

God’s desire is to become an agent of change and transformation in our lives. In the hymn, “Just as I am” the idea is that as bad off as we are, God will take us just as we are, but we are yielding our lives to him as we “come.”

Isaiah 43:18-19 says it well, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
 
God wants us to not only leave the old things that once gave us comfort, but to “forget” them. He wants us open to and ready to embrace the new thing he wants to build in us. He wants to make us new; to blaze a trail in the wilderness where there once was no road and to turn the dried up desert of our lives into flowing thriving streams of refreshing water.

You may think, “I’ve gotta’ be me! I’ve gotta’ be me! The me that I see makes me what I am.” That may be true for the moment, but God says, “I want to do a “new thing” in you. The entire message of Christ’s coming was, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” A brand new kingdom! A brand new world! A brand new life! And a brand new you and me! Surrender your old dried up, limited wasteland of a life to him, forget the past, and embrace the “new thing” he passionately desires to do in you and you will become a “you” that you never thought possible. You will become the dynamic child of the living God he wants you to be.

Sunday we will continue our series, “A NEW YOU FOR A NEW YEAR” with a message titled, “God’s Gonna Do A New Thing!” based on Isaiah 43:16-21. You don’t want to miss this message about personal revival and God’s power to transform a dead and dying life into a truly vibrant one that impacts everyone around you for God. I’ll see you then.

The New,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
“Gator Aid for Life”

Have you heard about the "gator aid" that was given to enlisted men in a Florida training camp during World War II? The daily training for those GIs included a run through an obstacle course. On the final stretch of the endurance test, they had to grab a rope and swing across a broad, shallow pool.

Under the blazing southern sun the water looked so inviting to the men that most of them soon developed a habit of making it only halfway across the pond--that is, until an enterprising lieutenant made it the new home for a large alligator. From that day on, the recruits left the ground 15 feet from the water’s edge and fell sprawling in the dust on the other side.

If God made life easy for us, we would begin to think we were pretty strong and self sufficient. We would grow comfortable with little or no challenge to life. When we have no challenges, we get soft and have little reason to grow or get stronger. If it were easy to run a marathon, with no practice or training, no one would ever train and no one would consider making it a great accomplishment. If it were natural to just sit down and play a great overture on the piano without any rehearsal or training, no one would appreciate the beauty of the music performed by a highly disciplined artiste. If it were simple to strike a golf ball with a club and put it in the hole with a single swing, the game would become boring and no one would have passion for the game.

But things that come hard challenge the human spirit to do our best, to learn the intricacies, developing skills and endurance to attain the highest levels of expertise possible in the ventures of life that draw our passion. We need coaches, teacher, friends, encouragers, and especially God to push, train and teach us what we need to know and how to do our best.

Life is hard! It is hard so we can be challenged, so we can feel frustrated and defeated, so we can realize how much we need God.  God often allows us to fail and flail in our own strength until we are ready to cry out for his help. A drowning victim cannot be rescued until he stops struggling and grows too tired to keep trying save himself. Once he relaxes, often from having his strength spent, a lifeguard can jump in and pull him from the water.
Many of us need God’s “gator aid” to encourage us to do our best. But we also need to understand that our best is not enough if we don’t put our hope in the Lord.

…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. 
Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you wondering if God will ever step in and rescue you from the mess in which you have found yourself? This Sunday we will look at the way to “Renew Your Strength” based on Isaiah 40:27-31 in the second message from our series “A NEW YOU IN A NEW YEAR.” Come and see how God can give you new energy through the building of your hope.

Hoping in Him,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
A New You in the New Year

Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with the cat.

He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. A while later, she heard a loud noise; there was meowing and hissing. She ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.

She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!"

Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

One of my favorite moments in a church service is when someone surrenders to the will of Christ and is baptized into him. Hopefully we are more enthusiastic than little Johnny’s cat. A private baptism is just as real as a public one, but my heart is most thrilled because the church family is blessed with the opportunity of witnessing the new birth of a brother or sister in Christ into the family. The Bible doesn’t teach that baptism is about “joining a church,” but the book of Acts suggests that, when a believer is baptized into Christ and salvation comes to the new believer, the Lord adds that person to the church family (see Acts 2:41 & 47).

In the second chapter of Acts, Peter was preaching that powerful sermon of Pentecost to thousands of people who had come that day to pray in the Temple. After giving the people a historical reminder of God’s preparation for the coming of the Messiah (i.e. The Christ) and telling them how this man named Jesus had been crucified at their hands and had been raised from the dead by the power of God he hit them with the zinger, “’Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.’” (Acts 2:36)

Their response was one of great shock and sorrow, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’” (Acts 2:38-39)

These new believers were sorrowful in their hearts for causing the Son of God, the Lord of all and the Messiah promised by God to be crucified because of their sinful lives. They wanted to know what to do about this new found belief. Peter told them how to take the next step toward receiving forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit in their lives. That step was to repent (turn from their old ways of false religion and sin to the way of Jesus) and be baptized (immersed in water) in the name (or by the authority) of Jesus Christ.

Verse 39 tells us that what Peter said in verse 38 was not just a command, but a promise to them that day and to everyone God would ever call to him in the future. That includes believers today.

Verse 41 tells us, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

The Three Thousand people who were immersed into Christ entered into a new life with God. They were added to the approximately 120 previous members of the Lord’s church on that day. They were transformed into Christ Followers and began a continual transformation into the likeness of Christ that we read about in Colossians 3:1-10.

Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you believed on his name? Have you confessed him as the Son of God and Lord of your life? Have you repented of your old sinful life and turned that life over to Jesus Christ? Have you been baptized into him for the forgiveness of your sins, receiving the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? Have you obeyed the command? Have you claimed the promise?

If not, why not enter into the New Year as a new you that will continually be renewed until the day Christ comes to take you home. Obey his command. Receive his promise and enter into the new life in this New Year right now. You won’t regret it.

Living the new life,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
A Proper Christmas Celebration

Here is a parody of the Christmas season that I recently found. I don’t know who its author is, but it challenges the modern view:

"And there were in the same country children keeping watch over there stockings by the fireplace. And lo! And was said unto them `Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that is for all people who can afford them.
 
For there will be given great feasts of turkey, dressing and cake; and many presents; and this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the presents, wrapped in bright paper, lying beneath a tree adorned with tinsel, colored balls and lights.

And suddenly, there will be with you a multitude of relatives and friends, praising you and saying, `thank you so much, it was just what I wanted’ And it shall come to pass as the friends and relatives have gone their away to their own homes, the parents shall say to one another, What a mess to clean up! I’m tired, let’s go to bed and pick it up tomorrow. Thank goodness, Christmas only comes once a year!’ And they go with haste to their cold bed and find their desired rest."

Does that sound like Christmas at your house? It has too often been the practical way it has gone in my life. Most of the things in the story are not that bad within themselves, but one terrible thing jumps out. Where is the worship of the Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord?
 
There is one thing you can do that will get your family Christmas off to a great worshipful start: TONIGHT, First Christian Church is hosting a Candlelight Christmas Communion Service on Christmas Eve at 6:00PM. It will be filled with worship and celebration of God’s most precious gift, His Son, Jesus the Christ. There will be beautiful music, readings, prayers, a brief inspirational devotional, and candlelight with the climactic ending of sharing in the Lord’s Supper in a very special way. The service should take no longer than one hour and should help you, your family and friends prepare their hearts for a proper celebration of the real reason for the season. I hope you will join us for this very holy time.

Celebrating the Christ,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
The Great Connection

A man stayed home as his family went off to church one Christmas Eve. He just could not swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as man. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.

Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another and another. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. Well, when he went to the front door, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze. He remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter -- if he could direct the birds to it. He quickly put on his coat and galoshes, trampled through the deepening snow to the barn, opened the door wide, and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in and he hurried back to the house, fetched breadcrumbs, sprinkled them on the snow making a trail to the yellow lighted wide open doorway of the stable, but to his dismay the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them, he tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms -- instead they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn.

Then he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature, if only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me. That I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. How? Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. If I could only be a bird myself, he thought. If only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language and tell them not to be afraid and show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I’d have to be one of them, so they could see and hear and understand.

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells. Listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.  – Philippians 2:5-11

The Son of God became man to enable men to become the sons of God.
--C S. Lewis

I am looking forward to sharing with you this Sunday’s 4th Advent message titled THE LIGHT OF LIFE, based on John 8:12. This season has been all about the true Light of the world, Jesus Christ and how that deals with darkness. I hope we will see how Jesus can keep us in the light.

Connected with him,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Truly Celebrate Christmas

He was so much bigger than they, but he never bullied them. In fact, he was the ever-present defender of the smaller boys. Wally wanted very much to be in the Christmas play that year. He hoped he could be a shepherd. But the teacher had a larger part in mind. Wally was big enough to be the innkeeper, she reasoned. And so it was that Wallace Purling got the part of the innkeeper. He was given the part. Oh, how he practiced. The night of the play everything went beautifully. No one even missed a line. At last the play came to the part where Mary and Joseph knocked on the door of the inn. "What do you want?’ Wallace asked, opening the door with a brusque gesture. "We seek lodging," came the response. "Seek it elsewhere, the inn is filled," "But sir, we have tried elsewhere, we have come a long way, and we are very tired," they responded. "Go away," Wally properly commanded. "There is no room in my inn for you." "But sir, my wife is with child. Don’t you have a corner where we can get out of the cold?" For the first time the innkeeper broke his icy stare and looked at Mary. There was a long silence. The audience was tense with embarrassment because they thought Wallace had forgotten his lines. "No, be gone," the prompter whispered. "No, be gone," Wally said halfheartedly. Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary as they began to move off the stage. Suddenly, this Christmas program became different from all the others. Wallace Purling could stand it no longer. Big he was – cruel he could never be. With big tears welling up in his eyes he gave a performance others would never forget. "Wait, don’t go Joseph!" Wally called. "Bring Mary back." Wallace Purling’s face grew into a bright smile. "You can have my room and I’ll sleep out in the cold." Some said the pageant was ruined. Others knew better. Wallace Purling caught the real spirit of Christmas – that of giving and sacrifice.

When we look at the characters in the original Christmas Story, we find several instances of generosity, kindness and sacrifice. While Mary was in early stages of pregnancy, her family sent her to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth where the elderly and formerly barren couple were dealing with the 6 month miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth. When Mary arrived, her cousin’s baby (to be named John, later called John the Baptist) kicked in recognition of the presence of the Messiah. Scripture teaches that, although Mary was pregnant herself, she was there to minister to and assist the elderly Elizabeth in the remainder of her pregnancy and in giving birth. Through his mother, Jesus was already serving others.

Joseph risked the sacrifice of his own reputation by accepting the call of the angel to go ahead and take the already pregnant Mary (his fiancée’) to be his wife. He risked his very business because of the appearance of scandal. But, hey! If a big angel appears to you and tells you God wants you to do something, you must give obedience some serious consideration.

Mary and Joseph demonstrated incredible faith by making the 70 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem most likely on foot (there is no mention of a donkey in the biblical account). And, Mary was already late in the third trimester of her pregnancy. You know that Mary considered this a great sacrifice for the glory of God.

The greatest sacrifice of all was God’s offering to mankind of the Emmanuel Child (God with us). To allow his only Son to let go of his untouchable position in heaven where he had no pain, no temptation and no vulnerability to become the smallest, weakest, most vulnerable form of humanity, a baby was a tremendous sacrifice. To top it off, he was not born in a sterile environment at a modern hospital or even a normal Judean home. He was birthed in a place that would be the nightmare of every neat freak who ever lived; a barn with the smelly livestock, straw, manure and all that goes with such an environment. But God’s plan for this was perfect as always.

I’ve said all of that to tell you this; Christmas is so much more than the modern world makes it. It has been trivialized down to shopping, gifts, parties and the like. Some people even think they are supposed to get drunk at office parties. That is their tradition. Really, their tradition? I know that Christmas is not celebrated on, or even near the actual birth of Christ. Most scholars believe he was born sometime in the spring. However, the idea of Christmas came from the actual biblical account of the incarnation (or, coming in flesh) of the Son of God. I love the Christmas pageants, live nativities, nativity decorations, and the carols that are sung around the season. They all have their place. However, what is most important is to realize that Christmas is really about God changing the world. Before Christ came there was no such thing as Christianity. He came to change the world one life at a time. When we reach out in love to people around us who do not have the joy and peace of Christ in their lives and show them that God loves them, Christmas becomes real. When we begin to forgive the people who have hurt us and embrace our enemies, Christmas becomes real. When we give sacrificially to the Lord’s work or to people who are in need, we truly celebrate Christmas. When we become more like the Christ Child, we truly celebrate Christmas within. By the way, did you know that you could truly celebrate Christmas all year long?

Merry Christmas!
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Trapped in the Trappings!

Senator John McCain of Arizona was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict. He was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for 5 ½ years, 1967-1973, spending much of it in solitary confinement. John McCain said this, “When I was being mistreated by the North Vietnamese, many times I found myself asking to live just one more minute rather than one more hour or one more day. And I know I was able to hang on longer as a prisoner of war because of the spiritual help that I received through prayer.”“At Christmas, I was the room chaplain, not because of my excessive virtue, but because I knew all the prayers that went with a church service, since I had been in a boarding school and was an Episcopalian. We asked for a Bible, and the Vietnamese said they didn’t have any. Later we learned that thousands of Bibles had been sent to us.”“Four days before Christmas, I was told that I could copy prayers and stories from the only Bible the Vietnamese had available…Our service consisted of a biblical passage read by me, followed by an appropriate song by the choir. I talked about the birth of Christ and the choir sang, ‘Silent Night.’”“I looked around the room and there were tears in those men’s eyes. They weren’t tears of anger or fright or sorrow or bitterness or even longing for home. They were tears of joy that, for the first time in seven years for some of them there was a celebration of Christmas together as Americans.”

This powerful story of a Christmas Celebration in the “Hanoi Hilton” (aka, Vietcong prison camp) reminds us more of what it means to “HAVE YOURSELF A REAL CHRISTMAS.” Most of us today think that, in order to have a REAL Christmas we must have lights, decorations, magnificent trees, and beautiful music in the background, overwhelming meals, cookies, candy and other treats. We must have wonderful Christmas clothes and more gifts under the tree than we can count!

However, as illustrated in our story, REAL Christmas is much more than exorbitant trappings! It is really about a personal connection with God through Christ. On the first Christmas there was controversy, rejection, poverty, exhaustion, dictatorship, scandal, dirt, and uninvited guests. Nothing could be further from the perfect modern Christmas, yet there was amazing worship and joy!

The trappings of Christmas tend to deflect the true focus of the season away from the realization that God sent his perfect Son into a dirty, corrupt world to live an exemplary life for all and to die a miserable, painful death in order to bring undeserved forgiveness for our cold blooded sins. Sometimes we find ourselves “Trapped in the Trappings” of Christmas.
As we enjoy the trappings of Christmas, let’s make sure we take the time to focus on the REAL side of the season; the side that really matters.

This Sunday, Josh McVey will deliver the sermon for our second Sunday of Advent, titled Firm Ground in a Dark World and based on Isaiah 9:2. I look forward to hearing it and I know you will too.

Getting Real,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Thankful No Matter What!

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:25-34

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it.

Terrified, one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!"

John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life."

"But your daddy was a preacher – surely he taught you some sort of prayer! So pray John, pray! The bull is catching up to us."

"All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"
This is the time of year when we focus on giving thanks. Hopefully, not only giving thanks, but feeling thankful.

Some of us don’t feel thankful. We feel worried. We feel like the bulls are catching up with us.

We feel anxious, concerned, lonely, distressed, or just plain bored. If we were to sit down and write a Thanksgiving letter to friends, family, and so on, how would we do it?

You know how that would go. You'd first write a generic letter, and you would copy it over and over, adding something personal at the beginning or end of the letter. But most letters would say the same thing – It would say things like, “Have a good thanksgiving, Be grateful to God…Hope you have a pleasant time with your family…”

You know, things like that.

But how would that work when writing to a woman whose son was recently in a tragic auto accident where his girlfriend was killed instantly, and he was still deep in a coma.

It is sometimes hard to give thanks.

What if you sent a Thanksgiving greeting to a friend, saying "remember to give thanks", forgetting it would be his last Thanksgiving. His cancer has spread.

It is sometimes hard to give thanks.

What about the card you might send to a relative who is struggling with a mother who can no longer remember her son.

It is sometimes hard to give thanks.

Yet in our text today Jesus is saying, “Don’t worry about your life.”

So what is your thanksgiving like?

Is it joy and gratitude, or anxiety and worry?

Sometimes it is hard to follow the instruction of Jesus and not worry about our lives.
Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, said something very similar when wrote, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Paul was always giving thanks to God. In another letter, he wrote, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

In 1 Timothy 2:1 Paul says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people."
 
Before you say that it was easy for Jesus, Paul and others to give thanks because they were spiritual giants and had it simple; think again.

Paul talked about how difficult his life was in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. It wasn’t easy.
He said, “I have worked hard. I have been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

Yet this is the man who wrote, “Give thanks always!”

He meant that we should be thankful when things are going great, but he also meant we should be thankful when things are not going our way.

It’s hard to be thankful when someone in our family dies or when our health is threatened. When we lose our job or go through a divorce or face a failure in our life.
And yet Paul wrote "give thanks in all circumstances."

Paul knew hard times, and he knew he should give thanks to God, even in the most difficult of situations. It is difficult to be thankful in all situations.

Scottish minister Alexander Whyte was known for his uplifting prayers in the pulpit. He always found something for which to be grateful. One Sunday morning the weather was so gloomy that one church member thought to himself, "Certainly the preacher won’t think of anything for which to thank the Lord on a wretched day like this."

Much to his surprise, however, Whyte began by praying, "We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this."

There is a story from Budapest, about a man who went to the rabbi and complained, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answered, "Take your goat into the room with you."

The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted. "Do as I say and come back in a week."
A week later the man came back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he told the rabbi. "The goat is filthy."

The rabbi said, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week."

A happy man returned to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat--only the nine of us."

But being thankful in all situations is not simply a matter of having a positive attitude. It is more than simply looking on the bright side.

It is difficult to be thankful when the doctor tells you that you have cancer, or when the teacher gives you a failing grade or the boss cuts your salary, or when a beloved friend dies.

Thankfulness to God is not simply a self-centered appreciation for the things God does for us, for the things God gives to us. Thankfulness to God is a God-centered appreciation for the faithfulness of God in our lives.

Can you be thankful to God no matter what?

I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving and that it will be a launching point for thanksgiving every day no matter what.

This Sunday we begin our Advent celebration, preparing our hearts for Christmas. It is also the launch day for your daily readings from our Advent devotional guides. I will bring a message titled Light Dawns in the Darkness based on Psalm 112:4. We will light the first candle and celebrate Jesus.

Always thankful for and with you,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
It Came to Pass

A Sunday School class was asked the question, “In your time of discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture.¨ a young man said, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want Psalm 23:1.¨ a middle age woman said, “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1.” Another woman said, “In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome this world. John 16:33-35.”

Then old Mr. John, who was 80 years old with head of white hair and dark black skin, stood up and said with as much strength as he could muster, “and it came to pass, 85 times in the Bible.”

The class started to laugh a little thinking that old Mr. John’s lack of memory was getting the best of him. When the snickering stopped, he said, “At 30 I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn’t know how I would make it. At 40 my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down. At 50 my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer. It slowly ate away at her. We cried together many a night on our knees in prayer. At 65 she died. I still miss her today. The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable. I wondered, ‘where was God?’ But each time I looked in the Bible I saw one of those 85 verses that said, ‘and it came to pass.’ I felt that God was telling me, my pain and my circumstances were also going to pass and that God would get me through it.”

While, Mr. John was not a particularly great theologian, he certainly had a proper perspective on life and dealing with life’s setbacks. He, like Joseph, understood that difficult, heart breaking circumstances, were no indication of the presence and faithfulness of God. Instead, they were opportunities to lean on God and trust in his ability to carry us through the struggle to the glory God has reserved for us.

Joseph was a man with setback after setback, yet he knew that God was still there. A time would come when God would reward his faithfulness in ways beyond his wildest expectations. Each struggle “came to pass.”

The same is true for you and me. We meet discouragements on a regular basis. There is nothing wrong with allowing ourselves to hurt, but we must let ourselves wallow in the pain. We must turn the problem over to God and let him free us from a life of discouragement. As life moves on you will know that “it came to pass.”

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
“Do You Really Want to Go to Heaven?”

A pastor was getting more and more excited by the minute as he delivered a powerful message on the prospects of one day going to be with the Lord in heaven. He became so wound up that, in a moment of spontaneity, he shouted, “Everyone here who wants to go to heaven, STAND UP!” Moved by his passion, the entire congregation jumped to its feet; that is, everyone, but old Jake who stayed firmly in his seat.

The pastor was excited to see the great response until he spotted old Jake still planted in his pew. “Brother, don’t you want to go to heaven someday?” asked the pastor.
“Of course I want to, Pastor,” Jake replied, “but you were so excited, I was afraid you were putting together a bus load to leave right now!”

I love odd song titles. Someone came up with one many years ago that went, “Everybody Wants to God to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die.”

While we can all relate to the man in the previous story and to the sentiment in the old song title, we must wonder why, if Heaven is so much better than life on earth, we cling to the earthly life with such a grip. We often treat eternal life as if it were some kind of a “Plan B” just in case this “Plan A” life doesn’t work out.

In his book, “The Purpose Driven Life” Rick Warren states that this temporary life on earth is nothing more than rehearsal for the eternal one to come (paraphrased). Jesus told us in John 14 that he has been preparing a place (Mansion) for us where we will live in his presence. That was 2,000 years ago. Imagine if God created this amazing universe in 6 days, how incredible the home must be that he has been preparing for 2 millennia in heaven. Perhaps we need to get more enthusiastic about our own preparation for the day when he takes us to live there.

This Sunday we will share a message about that place titled, “Comfort for a Troubled Heart.” The truth is that Jesus leads us to this goal and this place of joy and perfect peace. We are often far too troubled by the prospect of death or by the passing of a loved one to this place. It is natural for us to mourn the passing of a loved one and to be concerned about how we will leave those we love when we go. However, as Christians, we can embrace tremendous comfort to know how great our future is and how great the future is for our loved ones who die as Christ followers. Invite your friends and neighbors to hear this exciting and comforting message this Sunday morning.

Comforted,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Thinning Out Christ

There was a little old church out in the countryside: painted white and with a high steeple. One Sunday, the pastor noticed that his church needed painting. He checked out the Sunday ads and found a paint sale. The next day, he went into town and bought a gallon of white paint. He went back out to the church and began the job. When he finished the first side the paint was looking great. But he noticed he had already used a half gallon. He didn’t want to run back in town and being the creative person that he was, he found a gallon of thinner in the shed out back, and began to thin his paint. It worked out great. He finished the remaining three sides with that last half gallon of paint. That night, it rained: it rained hard. The next morning when he stepped outside of the parsonage to admire his work, he saw that the first side was looking great, but that the paint on the other three sides had washed away. The pastor looked up in sky in anguish and cried out, “What shall I do?” A voice came back from the heavens saying, “Repaint, you thinner and thin no more!”

Many who claim to be followers of Christ take their salvation on the basis of Jesus Christ and add religious tradition to the requirement of following Him. They think that Jesus is great, but there must be something more that must be done than simply having a relationship with Christ. Following Christ leads us to a life of service, but service doesn’t save us, knowing Christ does. Following Christ leads us to joining together with the church family on His day, but going to church doesn’t save us, Christ does. Following Christ leads us to a life of sacrifice, but a life of sacrifice doesn’t save us, Christ does. Following Christ leads us to a life of generous giving, but our giving doesn’t save us, Christ does. Adding other requirements to salvation thins out the value of Jesus in our lives and makes us followers of Jesus and “religion” thus making us dependent on less than only Him.

I hope you get the point. Jesus Christ fills us with himself and changes the infrastructure of our entire beings. He doesn’t make our religion better. He replaces our religion with himself. In the Ninth chapter of Matthew we are told how Jesus’ disciples were criticized by religious people for not doing certain religious traditions that had been important to them. Jesus used the illustration of a wedding, a used garment and a new patch, and new wine being poured into old wineskins to demonstrate how the way of God was all new. If Jesus didn’t make us completely new, we would not be able to contain what He was doing in us. The regeneration of our formerly religious hearts must change the way we see everything, not just some things.

Jesus came to be everything to us; not a thinned out version. It must be all Jesus or no Jesus. “Repaint you thinner and thin no more.”

Sunday we will look at the newness of Christ and how he will stretch and transform us like new wine in new wineskins. The message is called “Old and New Ways” based on Matthew 9:14-17. Come and experience the newness!

New in Christ,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Taste My Jesus

A theological college in the United States invited a renowned professor to their annual conference, as their guest lecturer. The theologian spoke for two and one-half hours "establishing proofs" that the resurrection of Jesus never took place. The professor quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless.

Christianity was all “emotional mumbo-jumbo,” he said, “Because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.”

After this verbal dissertation he moved back from the lectern and asked if there were any questions.

After about 30 seconds, an elderly pastor with a hairless head stood up in the back of the auditorium. "Doctor Professor, I have one question", he said, as all eyes turned toward him.

He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.
CRUNCH… "My question is a simple question”, CRUNCH ... "Now, I have never read those books you've read"...CRUNCH, "And I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek"...CRUNCH, "I know nothing' about Niebuhr and Heidegger"....CRUNCH… He finished the apple.

“All I want to know is: This apple I just ate------was it bitter or was it sweet?"

The professor paused for a moment and answered in a scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I have not tasted your apple."

The elderly preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at the professor and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."

The 1,000 plus in attendance throughout the auditorium erupted with applause and cheers. The professor thanked his audience and promptly left the platform.

When I was a student at Dallas Christian College more years ago than I care to admit, I took a turn in leading worship during a college chapel service. The speaker that day was a well known pastor from a mega church. Following the service, I happened to cross paths with the speaker in the college office. He said to me, “The theology of one of your songs was incorrect.” I asked which one and he told me, “He Lives.”
I said, “You don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead?”

“No, I believe in the resurrection, but the words in the song are incorrect. It says, ‘you ask me how I know he lives, He lives within my heart.’ We don’t know he lives because he lives in our hearts. It is the evidence of the resurrection that causes us to know.”

I went from there thinking the man was right and I needed to re-think the old hymn.
However, the more I study Scripture, the more I realize that we are lead to Christ’s resurrection by the evidence through the testimony of eyewitnesses and even some historical and scientific collaboration, but we only truly “know that Jesus lives” by the work he does in our lives every day. The more we know his presence the more we know he lives.
I am thankful to be among those who have tasted the sweetness of Jesus and have been changed through his resurrection.

This Sunday I will share with you a message from John 4:1-15 titled Living Water. It is my hope that when we are finished, you will not only taste the living water, but drink it in for the rest of your life.

Tasting Him,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Betrayal

There is not a more bitter feeling on earth than the one that comes when the closest of friends or a family member emotionally stabs you in the back. When the one person who should have your wellbeing foremost in his/her mind turns on you and throws you to the wolves, the pain travels to the innermost part of your psyche. Such betrayal has led to lifelong vendettas that resulted in debris fields of wounded and wrecked lives. Lifelong wars have been fought by the closest of friends and relatives. Often, the ones who are targeted for injury by revenge are not the only ones who receive the devastation. Everyone around them is torn asunder as collateral damage.

You’ve seen it; two siblings who refuse to speak for the rest of their lives over the division of their parent’s estate, or once best friends who now take every opportunity to tear down the reputation of each other. Such wounds spawn physical and emotional violence for a lifetime. They cause words that pour forth from the cesspool of nastiness that takes over the mind of the betrayed.

There has never been a more bitter response to such betrayal as when the perception has been that one was betrayed, stabbed in the back, thrown under the bus or left holding the bag by our loving heavenly Father. Yes, there have been times when people have felt as if God turned his back on them.

Where was God when my spouse got sick and died? Where was God when my mother’s boyfriend was molesting me or my siblings? Where was God when my child was struck by a car and killed? Where was God when I lost my job, my house, my car, my reputation and more? JUST WHERE WAS GOD in the most difficult times of my life? Does God betray his people when life goes sour?

Jesus was betrayed into the hands of the evil religious people for crucifixion by one of his closest friends, Judas, and felt betrayed by his heavenly Father when he cried out from the cross, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

One of God’s greatest apostles, Paul, prayed three times that God would remove his (unspecified) thorn in the flesh, but God did not speak until the third time, only to announce, “My grace is sufficient for you!”

However, neither Jesus nor Paul turned in bitterness to God. Jesus embraced his cross because he knew that God’s plan was to save the world by turning his back on his only sinless Son in order to make a way of escape from eternal punishment for their sins. Paul accepted God’s refusal to heal him for the sake of his own betterment to keep him from the danger of arrogance after taking part in so many supernatural visions from God.

Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob experienced betrayal from his jealous brothers who sold him into slavery and pretended that his father’s favorite son had been slaughtered by a wild beast. When he continued to trust God and it seemed God was about to rescue him from his slavery, his hopes were continually dashed by set back after set back. He could have easily rejected God as unjust and a God who betrayed his faithfulness over and over. But, he didn’t let his faith waiver. He kept obeying God and serving with tremendous integrity and faith year after year, setback after setback, betrayal after seeming betrayal.

But, when all was said and done, he learned that God actually had a plan to use him to save his people and to honor him in ways he never thought possible.

If you think God is not there. If you think He has betrayed you. If you think God will never allow you to “catch a break,” just wait! He has plans for you that you do not know. He is watching you and protecting your eternal life! The day will come when the entirety of his plan will be revealed and you will know that God has had your back all along!

This Sunday, Josh McVey will bring a message about the life of Joseph from Genesis 37 – 46 and Psalm 23 titled Rising from the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Plan to come and find comfort and encouragement from this message from God’s Word.

Faithful with you,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Bring Them to Jesus

In Mark 2:1-12, there is a powerful event that occurred when Jesus was teaching the crowds in his home base town of Capernaum. There was a helpless man who suffered from paralysis who spent every day lying on a mat. He had four friends who learned that Jesus was back in town and was teaching and healing people in a local residence. Desperate for their friend, they got together and decided to carry their friend to see this great teacher and healer who was nearby. They picked their friend up and carried him on his mat to the house where Jesus was teaching. Jesus was in the house and the crowds were lined up way out the door in such a way that the friends were unable to get their friend anywhere near him. So they carried him up the outside stairs to the flat roof of the home. They dug through the roof and created a hole large enough that they could tie ropes to their friend and lowered him to where Jesus was teaching. Jesus was so impressed with the faith of this man’s friends that he declared that the man’s sins were forgiven. It is likely that these friends were looking for physical healing, but Jesus saw his deeper, more eternal need and forgave him.
The religious leaders in the crowd declared that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy for claiming the power and authority that only belonged to God. Jesus read their minds and asked them which would be easier for hm to do, forgive the man’s sins or command him to take up his bed and walk. So that he could demonstrate his ability to forgive sins, he commanded the paralyzed man to pick up his bed and walk. So he did. He was so energized by Christ’s power that he began to run around and praise God.

What impresses me is the faith, concern, tenacity and ingenuity of this man’s friends. They saw that their friend needed what only Jesus could give him and made sure he got to him. Jesus rewarded their faith, their concern and their faith driven actions by giving the man everything he needed.

Do you have a friend or family member who needs to meet Jesus? This Sunday, First Christian Church will host what we call “Friend Day.” We are encouraging our members and regular attendees to invite and bring their friends for this one special service. At this service the guests will encounter numerous Christ Followers who will welcome them with the love of Jesus Thy will hear a Gospel driven message about what it means to be a friend of Jesus. We will also share in a delicious carry-in pot-luck fellowship dinner to help build relationships. The sermon will be titled, When Jesus is Your Friend. Do you care about your friends and loved ones? Bring them to Friend Day and show them Jesus and his love.

Bringing them to Jesus,
Jon

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Reaching Out to the Unreachable

The world to which Isaiah was called by God for ministry was not all that different from the one in which we live today.

The southern Israelite nation of Judah had been founded on God's Law and principles, but the kings of the land had turned from God's commands. Things were spiritually going from bad to worse. In the 6th chapter of Isaiah we get the account of God's powerful calling of his prophet to go and proclaim his message to the people. At the time, King Uzziah had died and the people were in a dangerous transition of leadership.

When Isaiah accepted the call of God he received some very disturbing news about his ministry. He would preach his heart out! He would stand steadfastly for God's Word and he would call rebellious people to turn back to God. However, verses 9 and following say that the people would hear but not understand. They would see, but NEVER perceive. Their hearts would be calloused and their ears would be dull and their eyes would be closed.

Do you remember the old THREE STOOGES skits on TV where there might be an explosion or some kind of catastrophic occurrence and one of the Stooges, usually Curly or Larry, would cry out, "I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE! Moe would turn to say, "You can't see? What's the matter?" The Stooge would then reply, in a mouthy whine, "I HAD MY EYES CLOSED!"

It wasn't that the Israelites couldn't see. They simply refused to see what God was trying to show them. They refused look at God and his way.

Today, it seems as if we live in a time where Paul's final verse in Romans 1 is being embraced, "Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:32

Isaiah was an amazingly articulate preacher and writer. His messages were vivid and powerful. The images God gave him were clear and true. In all of his ministry, through the reign of 4 kings, not one convert would be found. So, was he a failure in ministry? Hardly, God used him then and he uses the Prophet powerfully now to let people see their shortcomings (i.e. their sins) and to see where God wants them to go and what he wants them to do.

When you share God's Word or the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who rejects you, don't give up. Isaiah didn't! He was not a failure because he never quit until he died.

This Sunday at First Christian Church we will continue our preparation for Friend Day with the message, Friends Who Help Us. We will look at a variety of passages of Scripture. I hope you will come and dip your spiritual ladle in what God has in store for you.

Still Reaching,
Jon