Category Holidays

Jan 21 2020

Bottles of Blessings – How YOU Can Be Ready to Help Next Christmas

ttlespromo.001

Perhaps you’ve heard of churches that did an all out benevolent campaign to help others at Christmas by simply giving members of the church money from their budget, or from a wealthy benefactor, to give to those in need at Christmas.  This is a wonderful idea, and I’m so glad there are churches and people who are able to make this happen.

But it got me thinking – what if instead of me handing out someone else’s money, I handed out my own?

I believe with all of my heart that deep within every person is the desire to be benevolent to others.  The biggest hindrance to that almost always seems to be this: “I want to help, but I just don’t have enough extra in my budget to give and help others.

As part of the Mayfair Discipling initiative, I launched a program on Sunday simply called “Bottles of Blessings.”  The idea is simple – take this bottle, place it in a spot in your home where everyone sees it, and as you have spare change, dollar bills, etc., you place it in this bottle.  At the end of the year, tally it up, and use it to bless someone’s life.

Do you give your kids an allowance?  Give them their allowance in such a way where they can automatically put something in the bottle to bless someone at the end of the year, so they are a part of it.

I set a goal for our members – to save at least $100 for this cause.  They won’t be turning it in to anyone, there won’t be any checks and balances on it – it’s all between them and God.  But it’s always good to have a goal, right?

If you’re a member at Mayfair, we have a few bottles left at the front desk and by the auditorium doors.  If you’re just reading this and you won’t to participate – grab a mason jar or a cup at home, and put it somewhere with a sticker/label on it to remind you to participate.

But here’s the next step – start praying for someone to come into your life that you can help at Christmas in 2020.  Start praying that God will place someone in your life that needs the blessing you have to offer.  That way, when you hand them the blessing, you can tell them “I’ve been praying God would put you in my life so I could help someone.  Let me tell you about the mighty God I serve…”

Blessings to you all.

Jan 2 2020

Moments to Remember

Josie's poem

My sweet daughter wrote this poem for my father this year for Christmas.  It was our first Christmas without Marty, but we’ve also said goodbye to other family members in the past.

We played Bingo at my aunt and uncle’s house with my grandmother’s old bingo set.  We reminisced about when we used to all gather around on Christmas day and play Trivial Pursuit, and how my other grandmother would just blurt out answers for the opposing team.

I told my wife the story of how one Christmas eve at the Widick house.  My mom’s parents would stay with us in their later years on Christmas eve.  My grandfather couldn’t walk without shuffling his feet.  He never picked them up, he just sort of scooted around like Tim Conway would do in his old man comedy sketches.

My parents gave them their bed downstairs, and one year – my grandmother kept yelling at the top of her lungs to my grandfather “Quit shuffling your feet!  You’re going to wake up the whole house!!”  All the while, we never heard his feet, but we certainly heard her!

People will come and go in your life.  Family members pass on.  But the memories of the holiday seasons past stay with us.

Jan 1 2014

In the Beginning…

Happy-New-Year-2014-1-1Those words are uttered at the start of the Old Testament, and perhaps are three of the most significant words in our language as Christians.  There was, at least for us, a beginning.  Mankind entered into the world that God created.

Praise God!  He gave us life!  He gave us emotions!  He gave us a chance!

As we begin 2014, just like every new year, we can once again utter those words with sincerity and honesty – in the beginning.

In the beginning.  Its a new year.  What will you do with it?  Where will you let it take you?  How will you respond to circumstances that are less than desirable?  How will you make 2014 the best year you have ever lived?

Apr 4 2010

What its about today

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”  But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”

Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”  One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”…

…When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”