Invitations

We send them out for parties, weddings and assorted celebrations of all kinds. We have all received and sent invitations. They not only inform; they also show that you value the presence of the one you are inviting. What better celebration could you invite someone to than the celebration of the birth of our Savior? Last Sunday we provided you with an easy tool to do so. We got into the hands of all who attended, two Christmas invitation cards (pictured below). I just want you to know you are not limited to just two. You can pick up as many as you can use at either the Southridge info desk or the receptionist desk on our Oakhurst Campus. Last year we had many guests who came as a direct result of this simple outreach.

This is a prime time to invite others in to hear about the One sent to save us. Take advantage of the tremendous opportunity this season offers us to reach out to our community.

What does it mean?

Think of the last nativity scene you saw. What if you had no knowledge of the Christmas story and your assignment was to deduce the story from that picture of the circumstances of Jesus birth? Would you conclude that the baby was of some importance since he is surrounded by crowd of shepherds, farm animals and middle-eastern nobles bearing gifts? But if is He has such notoriety why a bed of hay, and why a barnyard maternity ward? I think for the uniformed it would not really make sense. The nativity set would generate more questions than answers.

It is only with the backdrop of the Bibles account does it all make sense. In its pages you learn of the Fathers love, the Sons obedience, the angels worship, Marys wonder, Josephs faith, the shepards diligence, the wisemens persistence and the worlds Savior. I am looking forward to spending the next trio of Sundays to take us all back to the manger and lets be amazed again at what we find.

Treasure Hunting

So have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Friday was the largest shopping day of the year for retailers and has earned the title “Black Friday.” The police department in Philadelphia is credited with coining the term due to the heavy traffic jams in the city on this busy shopping day. For online retailers, the Monday after Thanksgiving is known as “Cyber Monday” and is usually the peak of their virtual traffic. So what drives all of this frantic activity? It is the desire to obtain the perfect gifts for family and friends, and to do so at a bargain!

Sometimes we miss some special gifts tucked into God’s Word. They are hidden to us because the culture of the Bible is foreign to us and the original languages of the Bible are quite different than English. It takes a little extra effort to find treasures that are perfect for our lives. Tonight we will continue our treasure hunt as we seek to find some hidden treasures from God’s Word. We will step deep into that which is beneath the surface to find nuggets of truth. So join us tonight at six; it will be more fun than Christmas shopping!

Digging Deeper

For the next three Sunday Nights we are going to be going a little deeper into the Word to find some hidden treasures for our souls. As we look beyond our English translations to the original language of the Bible and see the concepts and ideas that do not translate well into our language. As we do we will find some amazing truths that has been buried there all along.

A sample of this kind of study can be found in the video one this page.

So I hope to see you Sunday night as we prepare to dig.

Jesse Waggoner

Grateful?

If you were given the assignment to list all the truly great sins in the world, what would be on your list? According to a BBC poll, the top sins are: cruelty, hypocrisy, selfishness, wastefulness, dishonesty and adultery. However, you know that evil is not determined by opinion polls, but would it surprise you to know that ungratefulness is near the top of God’s list? In a passage that details the downward spiral of this world into sin, ungratefulness is the second one mentioned (Romans 1:21). A careful reading also seems to indicate that the human heart that is not thankful for God’s provision and involvement is ripe for (what is to us) even greater offenses.

So as we launch into a week that contains a day of national thanksgiving, it is a good time to take stock of our own gratefulness to our God. We will enter into worship this morning and may I invite you to join us for our Thanksgiving Eve service Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM in our Worship Center. It will be a great way to start your observance of Thanksgiving and a great reminder to remain grateful.

Living out of a suitcase

For most of the week just past I have been staying in a hotel and I have been living out of a suitcase. I am glad to being back in Charleston, in my own home, sleeping in my own bed, and today to be back with you. But there is something one can learn from living out of a suitcase. I am (for a brief time anyway) able to live quite well with only a limited amount of stuff, and even at that I usually pack more stuff than I really need. But maybe I am not the only one who is a little “over packed.”

In 1 Peter 2:11 the apostle Peter appealed for believers to live a life of purity because believers are “Pilgrims” or travelers in this world. In essence, this side of heaven, we are all “living out of a suitcase.” Our real home is with our Lord --our present location is only temporary. But during this trip we often overload ourselves with baggage we were never meant to carry. Our God really wants us to travel light by casting our burdens of worry and care on him (1 Peter 5:7). As we look at another portion of God’s Word that provides for us some amazing reasons to trust God, I hope you will leave with a little less baggage today. It is my prayer that God will cause you to trust Him more today. Will join me in praying that God will help us all do a little unpacking?

Crossing the border

I vividly remember the first time I was outside of the United States and was crossing the border back in. I was a teenage and with my family had crossed the bridge that connects El Paso, Texas, and Juares, Mexico. In those days a passport was not required but you had to verbally declare to the border patrol officer the nation of your citizenship. I enthusiastically stated that I was a citizen of the United States because I was proud to be, but also so I would not be stranded on foreign soil!

In a spiritual sense, we are citizens of one “country” (Phil. 3:20) but are currently residing in another (John 17:16). As we continue our Bible study series, “Amazing Reasons to Trust God’, this Sunday’s study in the Word will help us see more clearly our spiritual connection and help us overcome the fears that our “alien status” sometimes causes us. I also trust as we can focus more on our spiritual connections that we will be enthusiastic in our declaring before others that we are part of the kingdom of God, and that they too can enjoy the benefits of citizenship through faith in Christ.

If you want to get a head-start on this study read Luke 12:22-34 / If you missed any of this series, you can get caught up at www.biblecenterchurch.net

Jesse Waggoner