Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

It’s just a few hours away from the start of a new year, 2012 to be precise.   On an evening like this there’s always a bit of excitement in the air.   Times Square is beginning to fill up with those who seek the excitement of the crowd. Others are getting together with friends and family members for more intimate dinners celebrations. Some of us will be in churches, welcoming the new year with prayer and thanks to God.   Unfortunately, some will be alone.   But wherever we may be, when the clock strikes twelve it will feel as if we have reached another mile marker within our lives, as well as within the history of our world.   For some people the turning of the new year will mean leaving regret behind and making new resolutions. For others, it is an opportunity to believe and hope for better times. Still for some, it may simply signify just another tick of the clock, one more cycle in the earth’s rotation around the sun.  But, is there anything deeply significant about the turning of

For this week's Pastor's Devotion, allow me to share with you a quote from Max Lucado's book, "God Came Near" which I used recently in one of my sermons:  "It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment that was like none other. For through that segment of time a spectacular thing occurred. God became a man.  While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived.  Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen.  He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.  God had come near. No silk. No ivory. No hype. To think of Jesus in such a light is—well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it. It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into th

This year I needed to buy a new Christmas tree for our home.   Since it’s been quite a number of years since I had to buy one, I went to a few stores looking to see what kind of trees the stores had and what the pricing was like. (Of course, I’m talking about an artificial tree!) To my surprise, wherever I went, just about all the trees already had lights on them.   When I first saw them, I thought I could never buy a pre-lit Christmas tree. After all, part of the process of Christmas is taking out last year’s lights, untangling them, seeing which ones work and which ones don’t, throwing away half of them, buying new ones, and then struggling to get them evenly spaced around the tree.   (Wow, that sounds exhausting!)   After visiting three stores, I finally gave in and bought a pre-lit Christmas tree.  When I got it home, I put it together (it was just three pieces), shaped the branches, and plugged it in. And, what do you know? The tree lit up with just the right amount of lights, al

Some of my favorite decorations to put out for the Christmas season are the nativity sets.   Early in our marriage Kim and I made sure we had a nice nativity set to be used as part of our annual Christmas tradition.   Through the years, we have added to our collection with various sets.   Some of my favorite are those that come from various parts of the world.   Although we don’t have too many of them, we now have sets from Peru, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bethlehem, Israel.   As I look at our international nativity sets I am reminded of the fact that when Jesus came to this earth as a baby he didn’t come for just one particular group of people or one particular nation.  He wasn’t born into this world to save a few select people.  Rather, he came because, “God so loved the world ….” (John 3:13) When the angels announced the birth of Jesus, they proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  (Luke 2:14 – NIV)  Notice they didn’t proclaim p

Now that our Christmas tree is up and decorated, I play almost only Christmas music in the house throughout the rest of the month.   Of course, the radio and the stores began playing Christmas music a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving Day – all in the hopes of getting us into the Christmas shopping mood.   But, the first Christmas music I heard was in Nicaragua! It was October 31 st when I arrived in Managua. After leaving the airport, we drove to one of the malls to get lunch at the food court. In the middle of the mall was a huge Christmas tree decorated like the nicest trees we’d see in our malls. Not only that, but our standard Christmas music playing!  The next day, we went to a supermarket in the small city of Leon. The supermarket had snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, little Christmas trees for sale (artificial evergreen!), a section called “stocking stuffers,” and again, American Christmas music playing.  That’s right, in Nicaragua I was listening to “White Christmas,” “