Christmas Chicken
The whole idea of Christmas revolves around the idea of a gift, appropriately enough. Giving and receiving gifts at Christmas is often a touching and sometimes surprising experience.
Email. Internet. Video. Texting. Tablets. Smartphones. The list never ends, does it? As technology advances, real human connection becomes harder and harder. If we’re not careful, each new gadget can draw us further away from the family of believers God designed us to be.
If you want to experience a close community with other Christians, you must first escape the trap of superficiality and to develop tight bonds that will feed your soul and mature your spiritual family.
The whole idea of Christmas revolves around the idea of a gift, appropriately enough. Giving and receiving gifts at Christmas is often a touching and sometimes surprising experience.
For many of us, our busy schedules filled with appointments and obligations keep us occupied to the brink of breakdown. We don’t have time for self-reflection or to take note of triggers and internal alarm bells telling us we’re not OK.
Biblically, it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure their children are properly educated about both the biological and moral aspects of sexuality. Parents are to “bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”
What does it mean to be a good neighbour? Does it mean keeping your dogs from barking at night and lending your neighbour eggs when they run out? Or, is it a higher calling? Chuck Swindoll describes the biblical standard for neighbourly love in this message.
If we truly desire to grow deeper, pull together, and go further than skin-deep superficiality in our relationships, we must remove those things that hinder true community.
Insensitivity is painful. It’s damaging to our relationships, and it grieves our God. To be thick is understandable. To be thick and tired of it is commendable. To be thick and tired of it but unwilling to change—is inexcusable.
Mankind is neither guaranteed nor promised anything in this life except trouble and death. Some the Lord wills to be rich, some poor, some male, some female, some black, some white. That’s not inequality. That’s diversity.
We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands we’re not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive.
It’s impossible to measure the worth of mutual encouragement. Whether spoken or written, a few encouraging words can make an enormous difference in the outcome of a single event or, in fact, someone’s entire life.
As believers, how often do we live out this same intentionally in our communities? These days it seems like we don’t invest in each other’s lives much, either because we’re distracted or don’t make the time.