Encouraging - Christmas

Excerpt from a Tim Keller sermon

The gift of Christmas gives you a resource – a comfort and consolation –for dealing with suffering, because in it we see God’s willingness to enter this world of suffering to suffer with us and for us.

No other religion – whether secularism, Greco-Roman paganism, Eastern religion, Judaism, or Islam – believes God became breakable or suffered or had a body….But Christmas teaches that God is concerned not only with the spiritual, because he is not just a spirit anymore. He has a body. He knows what it’s like to be poor, to be a refugee, to face persecution and hunger, to be beaten and stabbed. He knows what it is like to be dead. Therefore, when we put together the incarnation and the resurrection, we see that God is not concerned about the spirit, but he also cares about the body. He created the spirit and the body, and he will redeem the spirit and the body.

Christmas shows us that God is not just concerned about spiritual problems but physical problems too. So we can talk about redeeming people from guilt and unbelief, as well as creating safe streets and affordable housing for the poor, in the same breath. Because Jesus himself is not just a spirit but also has a body, the gift of Christmas is a passion for justice.

Edited by Nancy Guthrie, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas (Crossway, Wheaton, IL: 2008), 39-40.

Encouraging - Prosperity

Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels the he is “finding his place in it,” while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth.

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Macmillan, NY, NY: 1952)

Encouraging - Mediocrity

When I think about great leaders in history it’s their bodies of works that helps to define their legacies. In most cases, a single passion drives their lives to expend their life’s blood in order to achieve their set purposes. In recent times, I think of individuals like Bill Hybels who established his church, Willow Creek, “to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ”; or the highly revered group, U2, enduring numerous decades as well as producing countless hits all the while dedicating their lives to inspiring the heart, mind, body and soul; or Truett Cathy who built a chicken empire, Chick-Fil-A, from one little restaurant to a billion dollar industry whose doors are only open six days a week, he’s quoted as saying, “I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.” We admire people greatly who are willing to abandon it all for the sake of the call. We admire them even more if they are able to keep their character in tact through the process.

Keeping our priorities in proper order proves challenging more often than not especially when we’re hoping to make eternal differences in this world. J. Oswald Sanders suggests, “If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired” (Spiritual Leadership, 119). Are you fatigued or settling for mediocrity? Are you redeeming this world for Christ or going through the motions of life? Are you begging God to show you His will each day or merely asking Him to place His seal of approval after the fact? Are you living an intentional life or a reactionary one? Unfortunately, I would have to answer the latter to many of these questions. As we start to think about this next year, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). Each of us is here for a purpose, so let’s start living accordingly.

Encouraging - Godliness

A second leadership requirement is this: Godliness is more important than giftedness. While being gifted is important, a gifted leader who lacks godliness can lead others to destruction. Godliness is crucial. “An overseer must be above reproach” (1 Tim 3:2). When God develops a heart of a leader, there’s evidence of grace-saturated character, which produces godliness. A leader’s character is forged from loving submission to the One who possess him, his life, and his leadership.

Harry L. Reeder III, The Leadership Dynamic: A Biblical Model for Raising Effective Leaders (Crossway, Wheaton, IL: 2008). 56.