No Room

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

The first Christmas there was no room for the Lord Jesus in the inn. I'm afraid that today for many there will be no room for Jesus. There seems to be no room for Him in government. Many politicians are writing laws to ban any mention of His name.

There is no room for Him in the world of education. Public schools have banned His Word and expelled Him from being mentioned except in a blasphemous way. Even in the celebration we call Christmas, there is no room for Him. We have moved from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays. No room for Him in 2010.

We make room for sports. We make room for parties, for food, for parades, for games, for pleasures. We have room for just about everything, but Him.

In 1958, the songwriter John W. Peterson wrote,
No room only a manger of hay
No room he is a stranger today
No room here in his world turned away
No room, No room, No room

No room here in the hearts of man kind
No room No cherry welcome could find
No room surely the world is blind,
No room, No room, No room

Angels in Heaven up yonder watch
With Amazement and wonder
To see the son of the Highest treated so,
no room, no room, no,room

Here was a pregnant girl and her husband and all they wanted was a room, and yet, they were turned away and ignored. You say, "Pastor, honestly, maybe he really didn't have any room." I know there was one room he could have given. That was his own. He could have given his own room. There was room.

This Christmas, why not give Him your room?

Whose Birthday Party Is It?

The place was packed with the sounds of laughter, music, and conversations from the many family members and friends who had gathered to celebrate his birthday. The party was all about him. The food, the decorations, the pictures-it was all about his birthday.

Finally, they all gathered around and sang Happy Birthday, ate his birthday cake, hugged each other, and left. It was all about his birthday, yet no one gave him a gift.

Can you imagine such a scene as this? Yet, millions of people will spend millions of dollars on parades, parties, pageants, and possessions, but few spend anything for Him. Even those in His family will spend millions of dollars for presents for family; presents for friends, neighbors, work associates, even for people they don't really know that well, but will not give Him a present.

And it is His birthday we are celebrating!

An article entitled, The Forgotten Meaning of Christmas by Crown Financial Ministry, states:
This Christmas season 13 percent of Christians in America will give
at least one dollar to the homeless and 51 percent will give either
funds or their time to some nonprofit organization. Notwithstanding,
the typical Christian family in America will also spend $1,000 this
Christmas season on gifts and the family Christmas meal.

And we wonder why this generation is so materialistic?

This Christmas, I challenge you to join our family in reversing this madness. Let's determine to make Him the center of His birthday celebration. Next, set a budget for the amount of money you are going to spend this year, and stick to your budget. Look at your budget and make sure you are going to give Him the biggest and best of all your presents.

Then, you can teach your children those valuable character traits of generosity, compassion, and service. Find another family that is poor or needy; it may be a military family, a widow, an unemployed or disabled. Minister to that family with food, works of service, and your friendship.

Communicate to your children and to your loved ones that you are going to be doing some things different, because you have decided to make Him the focus of His birthday celebration. It's not about how much stuff we can accumulate; it is about Him, and helping others, and giving in a way that honors Him.

This year's birthday party, make sure He gets your biggest and best gift. After all, it is His birthday we are celebrating.

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: Matthew 2:11

Grieving the Holidays

"I used to feel like I would like to go asleep the day before Thanksgiving and wake up January 2," admits Lois Rabey. She expresses the grief most widows and widowers feel during the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas usually are times when most families get together and facing the reality that your loved one is not going to be there is almost more than a grieving wife, mother, husband, child, or father can bear.

I was with my dad when he went to heaven two weeks before Thanksgiving. That Thanksgiving was one of intense pain and sorrow for our whole family as we dealt with the reality of him no longer being with us. Even though that was 15 years ago, I still cry thinking about that night and how much we miss him, especially on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My good friend, Clayton King, lost his sweet mother yesterday and he will preach her memorial celebration, the day before Thanksgiving. Pray for him, his dad and that family.

Even though this was the year in our rotation system that we were going to be with my family, Tebra and I are going to spend Thanksgiving with her sister and family. Her husband, my friend, Redmond, went to heaven February 3, and this will be their first Thanksgiving without him. Pray for Freda and her four children. There is nothing I can say that will help them. There is nothing I can do to help them. But I do know the One who can help them and I want to be there as I call on Him to send His ambulance of grace.

You probably know someone who has a loved one in heaven and their heart is heavy this Thanksgiving. Write, email, text, or tweet them. Call and leave a message saying how much you love them. Remind them that He promised to always be there and to cry out to Him. Don't give them some little trite saying like, "Time will heal your heart." That is a lie. Only Jesus can heal a heart.

Don't tell them to pray and go on with their life. The word "on" implies we leave something and go to something else. If you have to say something, say, "Jesus will help you go forward with your life."

Most of all, pray God's grace: strengthening grace, sympathising grace, sustaining grace. It is God's grace that brings a person through their grief and causes them to survive the holidays. If you are that grieving person, look to Him. He sees. He cares. He is really the only One who knows exactly what you are going through, and He is there, ready to help you.

He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; Isaiah 53:3

Wanted: Harvest Laborers

The Scriptures teach that the one priority, the one concern of the Savior's heart is the harvest. He seeks the harvest; He saves the harvest; He sends us to the harvest. Since that is true, the people whom He chooses to fellowship with are harvest laborers.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Matthew 20:1

He is still looking for laborers today. Not entertainers, not professionals, not experts-common laborers. To be a good farmer, it is not required that you completely understand biology, chemistry, meteorology or botany.What you have to do is sow and reap.
To be a laborer in the field of souls you don't have to understand all theology, eschatology, or ecclesiology; just sow and reap. Just tell them the gospel and ask them to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Sow and reap.

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; Matthew 13:3

No, not all seed will produce. Some will fall on cold hearts; some on cluttered hearts; and some on careless hearts. But if we sow enough seed, some will fall on hearts that have been cultivated by the Holy Spirit and are warm, receptive, fertile hearts. Only God can convict a heart. I sow the seed; God convicts the heart.

Happy is the farmer that knows the difference between his responsibility and God's responsibility. God doesn't sow the seed or cultivate the soil, that is the farmer's responsibility. But after the seed is sown, the farmer has to trust God. Only God can bring life out of death.
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. John 12:24

Would you join me in the harvest? The fields are ready to harvest now. God is looking for sowers and reapers. As the words of Twila Paris invite,
Come and join the reapers
All the kingdom seekers
Laying down your life
To find it in the end
Come and share the harvest
Help to light the darkness
For the Lord is calling
Faithful men
(and women, and students, and prime timers)

Lord of the Harvest

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:36-38

3 Facts:
1. The number of lost souls in the global fields of harvest is plentiful.
2. The number of laborers working to bring in the harvest is pitiful.
3. Our greatest response to this need is to pray.

Today, there are over 6.804 billion people on this earth, and 5.443 billion souls are lost; without Christ, without hope, heading to an awful eternity. The harvest is plentiful.

In our nation, there are 258 million people who are not a part of any church of any denomination-lost. There is not one county in our nation, not one in any of the fifty states, that has over 50% of the population in some church. Not one county is "churched" in this whole country. The harvest is plentiful.

In the state of North Carolina, with thousands of churches of all kinds and sizes, there are nearly 6 million people who will not be in any church this Sunday. Lost. The harvest is plentiful.

There are over 146,000 people living in Nash and Edgecombe counties. Research shows that one out of three people in our area will attend some kind of a church service at least one Sunday in a year. IF every person who stepped inside of a church building one time a year would all go to heaven, that still would mean there are over 98,000 people living within 30 minutes of our church property that are lost and heading for a Christless eternity. The harvest is plentiful!

Our precious Savior came to earth for the harvest. He died for the harvest. Soon, He is coming back for the harvest. His main concern today and tomorrow is not the election, the economy, or the environment; He is concerned only about the harvest. He is- the Lord of the harvest.

Would you join Him? You can, by praying and by participating in the harvest. Pray that He would send out laborers into the harvest fields of our area, into our nation, and to the world.

There are over 269,000 people in one unreached, unengaged people group in India called the Koli Malhar. There is not one church among all these people. Lost.

Pray that He would send a couple from Englewood, either a married couple or two single adults or college students, to live for 8-12 months among the Koli of India. This mission team of two would follow-up on those who give their life to Christ when our volunteer teams go there in February and April of 2011. Pray that this team of two would hear His call, heed His call and be ready to go to India in February of 2011.

Pray, and then be the answer to someone else's prayer by personally going out into the harvest.

That's bad. No, that is good.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Even after 40 years I still remember Abbott and Costello doing a comedy skit that has since taught me a great scriptural truth. Lou would tell about an incident which seemed to be awful, and Bud would respond by saying, "Oh, that was bad." Lou would say, "No, that was good." Then after explaining the entire situation, Bud would say, "Oh, that is good." "No, that was bad," Lou would answer.

Have you ever thought about how some things which seem so bad at the moment, actually turned out for good, while some things which appear so good at first, eventually turn out so bad.

Today, Tebra and I saw the largest living things on the earth-giant sequoia trees. While traveling through the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, we saw trees that were over 2500 years old, over 300 feet tall, and over 30 feet in diameter. These huge sequoias have experienced droughts, insects, fires, and man, and still survived. In fact, I learned that forest fires, which seem to be the worst thing that could happen to a tree, was really the life-saver for the sequoia.

Sequoias rely on fire to release most seeds from their cones, to expose bare mineral soil in which seedlings can take root, to recycle nutrients into the soil, and to open holes in the forest canopy through which sunlight can reach young seedlings. They need a fire to sweep the forest every 10-15 years, and where God does not provide one through lightning strikes, foresters in Yosemite will now conduct controlled fires. Bad? No, that's good.

On September 9, Barbara Givens, was driving from delivering brownies to our Prime Timer Bible Study which Pastor Jack teaches on Thursdays. Her car was suddenly hit on her driver's side by a truck. She was taken to the hospital where she was told she had some broken vertebrae and bleeding from a kidney. After being taken by helicopter to another hospital, they did more tests, scans, and x-rays and found that she actually had a cancerous tumor on her kidney.

The doctor explained to Pastor Jack and Barbara that the accident may have saved Barbara's life. Because she had no symptoms, had it not been for the car wreck and subsequent tests, they may not have found the tumor until it was too late. Barbara is scheduled to have the tumor and kidney removed on October 5. A car wreck-bad? No, it will turn out for her good and for God's glory.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

Why Revival Tarries

It is not a personal opinion, but it is a documented fact-the Church in America is in trouble. Why? What's the problem? What's the solution?

In December 1959, God used a man by the name of Leonard Ravenhill to pen these words which gives a precise diagnosis of the church in America today. I pray that as you read them, and reread them, you will be as convicted and repentant as I have been:

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop-window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no show offs.

Poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. Spiritual adolescents say, "I'll not go tonight, it's only the prayer meeting." We are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, not even bent.

Are we so substandard to New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers, but only the hysterical faith of our fellows? Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man. Can we deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the New Testament church the least. Our accent is on paying; theirs was on praying. When we have payed, the place is taken. When they had prayed, the place was shaken!

In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. For this kind of prayer there is no substitute. We do it-or die!


Taken from Why Revival Tarries, by Leonard Ravenhill, Fires of Revival Publishers, 1959.