“With every power for good to stay and guide me,
comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,
and pass, with you, into the coming year.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
and oh, most surely on each new year’s day

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening:
the long days of our sorrow still endure.
Father, grant to the soul thou hast been chastening
that Thou hast promised—the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
even to the dregs of pain, at thy command,
we will not falter, thankfully receiving
all that is given by thy loving hand.

But, should it be thy will once more to release us
to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,
that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us
and all our life be dedicate as thine.

To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting:
lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
Thou canst illumine e’en our darkest night.

When now the silence deepens for our harkening,
grant we may hear thy children’s voices raise
from all the unseen world around us darkening
their universal paean, in thy praise.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldy we’ll face the future, be it what way.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
And oh, most surely on each new year’s day!” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1945)

While Bonhoeffer penned these words 75 years ago, they still ring true. May this truly be your and my prayer for the new year.

In case you were wondering, yeah, I do like my feline a little bit. Just a little.

What are your 2020 goals? What do you want to see happen in the coming year?

I was convicted in a sermon today that my goals are too often inward focused. They start and end with me.

But in Acts 2, the early church was committed to community. Each person made it his or her goal to make the lives of their brothers and sisters in the faith better. They abounded with generosity and sacrificial giving. They invested in each other not just once a week for an hour but on a daily basis.

Every time I see Acts 2:42-47 I see the standard and I see how far the average American church is from living it out. I see that too many people, especially believers, are living out lonely disconnected lives with little to no meaningful interaction. Having 5,000 Facebook friends can’t replace having a handful of real friends who will encourage and challenge you, who will ask how you are and won’t accept a trite Fine as an answer.

A lot of us, me included, need to step out in bold faith. We need to turn away from what’s comfortable and convenient to chase after God’s dreams for us. We can never take hold of God’s best for us when we’re still holding on to the good.

What am I doing next week? I don’t have 2020 vision (I can use that for a couple more days). I do know that God will be there and I can’t wait to see what He has in store for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

I’ve been enjoying Disney Plus so far, having seen all the Santa Claus movies as well as the first three episodes of The Mandalorian. Currently, I’m in nostalgia heaven watching an 80’s movie called One Magic Christmas.

In the movie, one of the characters says something to the effect that if you’re a good person when you die, you go to heaven and become an angel.

That seems to be the prevalent belief about what it takes to make it to heaven, but it also begs a couple of questions: 1) Who defines good? and 2) How good is good enough?

Who defines good? Do you mean like good as in being nice to people or do you mean good as in religious activities, i.e. reading my Bible, praying, going to church, etc.? Is it about following rules? Is it about how many hours of community service you have?

Also, how good is good enough? Are we talking about being slightly better than your neighbor or judging yourself against the likes of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin? Is it about keeping all ten commandments?

If you take Jesus’ words seriously, the standard is perfection. Jesus said for us to be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. That is what God considers good enough. That is also impossible.

Jesus didn’t come to show us the way to heaven but to BE our way to heaven. Jesus was the one who lived in perfect obedience to God the Father and kept every one of God’s commandments. By His death, He took our sins and gave us that perfection so that we could be acceptable to God.

The true gift of Christmas is the gift of salvation. It is the gift of us owning up to our sins, trusting Jesus and His finished work on the cross, and receiving Him as Lord and Savior. If you truly believe, you can pray the following prayer that Billy Graham always used at His crusades:

“Dear God,
I know I’m a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness.
I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died
for my sin and that you raised Him to life.
I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord,
from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will.
I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

In case you’re stuck for something to work on in 2020, here are a few suggestions. Some of them are obviously more useful than others but all of them can at least bring a little levity into your life in this sometimes stressful existence.

I hope you enjoy all 12 resolutions.

I’d add one more: give grace to all, especially yourself, remembering how much grace you have received from God. At this moment, your lungs are full of grace and the same grace runs through all of your arteries.

Choose to give thanks and pay it forward. Choose to be better instead of bitter. Seek after God’s wisdom because He never gives sparingly to those who ask.

“Let the just rejoice,
for their justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,
For their saviour is born.
Let the captives rejoice,
For their Redeemer is born.
Let slaves rejoice,
for their Master is born.
Let free men rejoice,
For their Liberator is born.
Let All Christians rejoice,
For Jesus Christ is born.
St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-440)”

“There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger'” (Luke 2:8-12, The Message).

“Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved” (Augusta E. Rundel).

I love the entirety of the Christmas season. My only dislike is that the days go by far too fast for my liking and before you know it, both Advent and Christmas are soon over.

For me, Christmas is a time of remembering as much as it is a time of celebration. I think of all those I’ve lost who made Christmases past so wonderful and memorable.

It seems like this year there’s an empty chair at the dinner table and an empty seat at the family gathering. There’s one less voice in the conversation and one less gift under the tree.

For me, it’s not so much sadness that prevades (though there’s a bit of sadness) as much as gratitude for having known all these wonderful people who shaped me and made me who I am.

I raise a glass and toast you, Raymond, Iris, Bob, Monty, Timothy, Bud, Maria, and Ruby. I carry your love and memories with me today and every day.

“When the Maker of time, the Word of the Father, was made Flesh, He gave us His birthday in time, and He, without Whose divine bidding no day runs its course, in His incarnation reserved one day for Himself. He Himself with the Father precedes all spans of time, but on this day, issuing from His mother, He stepped into the tide of years. Man’s Maker was made Man that He, the Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast, that the Bread might be hungry, that the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired from the journey, that Truth be accused by false witnesses, that the Judge of the living and dead be judged by a mortal judge, that the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Vine crowned with thorns, the Foundation be suspended on wood, that Strength might be made weak, that the Healer be wounded, that Life might die” (St. Augustine).

Why did God take on human flesh in the form of Jesus?

If it’s to tell us that all we really need to do is try a little harder and be a little nicer to each other, He might as well have stayed in heaven.

If it’s to add to the many roads that lead to God, then again Jesus’ life was pointless and His death was a waste. On top of that, His own words prove He was either a liar or a lunatic.

If it’s to tell us that we’re all okay, then He needn’t have bothered. I think deep down we know that we’re not okay, that the world we live in is not okay, that we need someone other than ourselves to get us out of the mess we’re in.

Jesus didn’t come to make good people better or even bad people good– He came to make dead people alive. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to reconcile the estranged to God, to turn aliens and strangers to God’s promises into the very sons and daughters of God.

We do no one any good if we compromise the gospel message to the point that it offers no hope any longer. When we become so much like the world around us that we no longer have a distinct message, we might as well all go home and live however we like and forget about church.

The world around us doesn’t hate us because we’re too different from them, but oftentimes because we’re not different enough. They don’t need our appeasement or our compromises as much as they need the message of hope that rang out on that December morning all those hundreds of years ago.

God has come to us to dwell with us and be our God and we can be His people. As John 3:16 says, whoever believes in Him need not perish but have true and eternal life to the full.

Here’s a quick update. The reign of Queen Peanut has gone smoothly, as all of her subjects are quite contented and happy.

This little gal is still the most laid-back, gentle soul who almost never gets rattled or skittish.

She’s still not a fan of the outdoors or strangers. But she still loves her naps and belly rubs.

I suppose I should probably buy her a little something nice for being such a good little cat. After all, she’s earned it.