“One Life”

by Eric Elder
The Ranch

If you wonder how your life can touch the world, I hope you’ll watch this message I shared last week with a congregation here in Illinois!

In this message, I also share some video clips and a song on the piano from our recent ballet called “One Life,” based on the book we’ve been featuring these past 7 Sundays called “St. Nicholas: The Believer.”

To watch the message, click the picture below or click this link.

And if you’d like to watch a LIVE worship service today at 9 or 11 a.m. Central Time (and recorded for playback later anytime during the week at the same link), visit live.eastview.church.

P.S. I’ll be doing a baptism today at the end of the 11 o’clock service of an online viewer who is coming in to be baptized! Be encouraged; people are coming to Christ all around the world.

Enjoy!
Eric Elder

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ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
Part 7 of 7

by Eric & Lana Elder

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Today, I’m posting the conclusion of our story, St. Nicholas: The Believer. 

I’m also preaching a special Christmas message, live and online this morning from Central Church in Streator, Illinois! You can watch live at this link at 9:30 a.m. CST (or watch the replay at the same link starting later in the day on Monday). I’d love to help bring the Christmas story to life for you this year–to YOUR LIFE!

And now, here’s Part 7 and the Conclusion of St. Nicholas: The Believer.

ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
A new story for Christmas based on the old story of St. Nicholas
by Eric & Lana Elder

Click here to listen to Part 7 of the Audiobook, St. Nicholas: The Believer.

PART 7

CHAPTER 37

Nicholas stood at his favorite spot in the world one last time: by the sea. Eighteen years had passed since he had retuned to Myra from the council in Nicaea. In the days since coming home, he continued to serve the Lord as he had always done: with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.

Nicholas had come to the shore with Dimitri and Anna Maria, who had brought with them one of their grandchildren, a young girl seven years old, named Ruthie.

Ruthie had been running back and forth in the waves, as Dimitri and Anna Maria tried to keep up with her. Nicholas had plenty of time to look out over the sea and as he often did, look out over eternity as well.

Looking back on his life, Nicholas never knew if he really accomplished what he wanted to in life: to make a difference in the world. He had seen glimpses along the way, of course, in the lives of people like Dimitri, Samuel, Ruthie, Sophia, Cecilia and Anna Maria.

He had also learned from people like the ship’s captain that when the captain arrived in Rome, his ship miraculously weighed exactly the same as before he had set sail from Alexandria—even after giving the people of Myra several years’ worth of grain from it. Reminders like these encouraged Nicholas that God really had been guiding him in his decisions.

He still had questions though. He never quite knew if he had done the right thing at the council in Nicaea. He never quite knew if his later private conversations with Constantine might have impacted the emperor’s personal faith in Christ.

He was encouraged, however, to learn that Constantine’s mother had also made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land just as Nicholas had done. And after her visit, she persuaded Constantine to build churches over the holy sites she had seen. She had recently completed building a church in Bethlehem over the spot where Jesus was born, as well as a church in Jerusalem over the spot where Jesus had died and risen from the dead.

Nicholas knew he had had both successes and mistakes in his life. But looking back over it, he couldn’t always tell which was which! Those times that he thought were the valleys turned out to be the mountaintops, and the mountaintops turned out to be valleys. But the most important thing, he reminded himself, was that he trusted God in all things, knowing that God could work anything for good for those who loved Him, who were called according to His purpose.

What the future held for the world, Nicholas had no idea. But he knew that he had done what he could with the time that he had. He tried to love God and love others as Jesus had called him to do. And where he had failed along the way, he trusted that Jesus could cover those failures, too, just as Jesus had covered his sins by dying on the cross.

As Nicholas’ father had done before him, Nicholas looked out over the sea again, too. Then closing his eyes, he asked God for strength for the next journey he was about to take.

He let the sun warm his face, then he opened the palms of his hands and let the breeze lift them into the air. He praised God as the warm breeze floated gently through his fingertips.

Little Ruthie returned from splashing in the water, followed closely by Dimitri and Anna Maria. Ruthie looked up at Nicholas, with his eyes closed and his hands raised towards heaven. Reaching out to him, she tugged at his clothes and asked, “Nicholas, have you ever seen God?”

Nicholas opened his eyes and looked down at Ruthie, then smiled up at Dimitri and Anna Maria. He looked out at the sunshine and the waves and the miles and miles of shoreline that stretched out in both directions before him. Turning his face back towards Ruthie, Nicholas said, “Yes, Ruthie, I have seen God. And the older I get, the more I see Him everywhere I look.”

Ruthie smiled, and Nicholas gave her a warm hug. Then just as quickly as she had run up to him, she ran off again to play.

Nicholas exchanged smiles with Dimitri and Anna Maria, then they, too, were off again, chasing Ruthie down the beach.

Nicholas looked one last time at the beautiful sea, then turned and headed towards home.

EPILOGUE

So now you know a little bit more about me–Dimitri Alexander–and my good friend, Nicholas. That was the last time I saw him, until this morning. He had asked if he could spend a few days alone, just him and the Lord that he loved. He said he had one more journey to prepare for. Anna Maria and I guessed, of course, just what he meant.

We knew he was probably getting ready to go home, to his real home, the one that Jesus had said He was going to prepare for each of us who believe in Him.

Nicholas had been looking forward to this trip his whole life. Not that he wanted to shortchange a single moment of the life that God that had given him here on earth, for he knew that this life had a uniquely important purpose as well, or else God would never have created it with such beauty and precision and marvelous mystery.

But as Nicholas’ life here on earth wound down, he said he was ready. He was ready to go, and he looked forward to everything that God had in store for him next.

So when Nicholas sent word this morning for Anna Maria and me and a few other friends to come and see him, we knew that the time had come.

As we came into this room, we found him lying on his bed, just as he is right now. He was breathing quietly and he motioned for us to come close. We couldn’t hold back our tears, and he didn’t try to stop us. He knew how hard it was to say goodbye to those we love. But he also made it easier for us. He smiled one more time and spoke softly, saying the same words that he had spoken when Ruthie had died many years before: “Either way we win,” he said. “Either way we win.”

“Yes, Nicholas,” I said. “Either way we win.” Then the room became quiet again. Nicholas closed his eyes and fell asleep for the last time. No one moved. No one said a word.

This man who lay before us slept as if it were just another night in his life. But we knew this was a holy moment. Nicholas had just entered into the presence of the Lord. As Nicholas had done throughout his life, we were sure he was doing right now in heaven, walking and talking and laughing with Jesus, but now they were face to face.

We could only imagine what Nicholas might be saying to Jesus. But we knew for certain what Jesus was saying to him: “Well done, My good and faithful servant. Well done. Come and share your Master’s happiness.”

I have no idea how history might remember Nicholas, if it will remember him at all. He was no emperor like Constantine. He was no tyrant like Diocletian. He was no orator like Arius. He was simply a Christian trying to live out his faith, touching one life at a time as best he knew how.

Nicholas may have wondered if his life made any difference. I know my answer, and now that you know his story, I’ll let you decide for yourself. In the end, I suppose only God really knows just how many lives were touched by this remarkable man.

But what I do know this: each of us has just one life to live. But if we live it right, as Nicholas did, one life is all we need.

CONCLUSION

by Eric Elder

What Nicholas didn’t know, and what no one who knew him could have possibly imagined, was just how far and wide this one life would reach–not only throughout the world, but also throughout the ages.

He was known to his parents as their beloved son, and to those in his city as their beloved bishop. But he has become known to us by another name: Saint Nicholas.

The biblical word for “saint” literally means “believer.” The Bible talks about the saints in Ephesus, the saints in Rome, the saints in Philippi and the saints in Jerusalem. Each time the word saints refers to the believers who were in those cities. So Nicholas rightly became known as “Saint Nicholas,” or to say it another way, “Nicholas, The Believer.” The Latin translation is “Santa Nicholas,” and in Dutch “Sinterklaas,” from which we get the name “Santa Claus.”

His good name and his good deeds have been an inspiration to so many, that the day he passed from this life to the next, on December 6th, 343 A.D., is still celebrated by people throughout the world.

Many legends have been told about Nicholas over the years, some giving him qualities that make him seem larger than life. But the reason that so many legends of any kind grow, including those told about Saint Nicholas, is often because the people about whom they’re told were larger than life themselves. They were people who were so good or so well-respected that every good deed becomes attributed to them, as if they had done them themselves.

While not all the stories attributed to Nicholas can be traced to the earliest records of his life, the histories that were recorded closest to the time period in which he lived do record many of the stories found in this book. To help you sort through them, here’s what we do know:

• Nicholas was born sometime between 260-280 A.D. in the city of Patara, a city you can still visit today in modern-day Turkey, on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
• Nicholas’ parents were devout Christians who died in a plague when Nicholas was young, leaving him with a sizable inheritance.
• Nicholas made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and lived there for a number of years before returning to his home province of Lycia.
• Nicholas traveled across the Mediterranean Sea in a ship that was caught in a storm. After praying, his ship reached its destination as if someone was miraculously holding the rudder steady. The rudder of a ship is also called a tiller, and sailors on the Mediterranean Sea today still wish each other luck by saying, “May Nicholas hold the tiller!”
• When Nicholas returned from the Holy Land, he took up residence in the city of Myra, about 30 miles from his hometown of Patara. Nicholas became the bishop of Myra and lived there the rest of his life.
• Nicholas secretly gave three gifts of gold on three separate occasions to a man whose daughters were to be sold into slavery because he had no money to offer to potential husbands as a dowry. The family discovered Nicholas was the mysterious donor on one of his attempts, which is why we know the story today. In this version of the story, we’ve added the twist of having Nicholas deliver the first two gifts, and Dimitri deliver the third, to capture the idea that many gifts were given back then, and are still given today, in the name of Saint Nicholas, who was known for such deeds. The theme of redemption is also so closely associated with this story from Saint Nicholas’ life, that if you pass by a pawn shop today, you will often see three golden balls in their logo, representing the three bags of gold that Nicholas gave to spare these girls from their unfortunate fate.
• Nicholas pled for the lives of three innocent men who were unjustly condemned to death by a magistrate in Myra, taking the sword directly from the executioner’s hand.
• “Nicholas, Bishop of Myra” is listed on some, but not all, of the historical documents which record those who attended the real Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. One of the council’s main decisions addressed the divinity of Christ, resulting in the writing of the Nicene Creed–a creed which is still recited in many churches today. Some historians say that Nicholas’ name does not appear on all the record books of this council because of his banishment from the proceedings after striking Arius for denying that Christ was divine. Nicholas is, however, listed on at least five of these ancient record books, including the earliest known Greek manuscript of the event.
• The Nicene Creed was adopted at the Council of Nicaea and has become one of the most widely used, brief statements of the Christian faith. The original version reads, in part, as translated from the Greek: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead…” Subsequent versions, beginning as early as 381 A.D., have altered and clarified some of the original statements, resulting in a few similar, but not quite identical statements that are now in use.
• Nicholas is recorded as having done much for the people of Myra, including securing grain from a ship traveling from Alexandria to Rome, which saved the people in that region from a famine.
• Constantine’s mother, Helen, did visit the Holy Land and encouraged Constantine to build churches over the sites that she felt were most important to the Christian faith. The churches were built on the locations she had been shown by local believers where Jesus was born, and where Jesus died and rose again. Those churches, The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, have been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the years, but still in the same locations that Constantine’s mother, and likely Nicholas himself, had seen.
• The date of Nicholas’ death has been established as December 6th, 343 A.D., and you can still visit his tomb in the modern city of Demre, Turkey, formerly known as Myra, in the province of Lycia. Nicholas’ bones were removed from the tomb in 1087 A.D. by men from Italy who feared that they might be destroyed or stolen, as the country was being invaded by others. The bones of Saint Nicholas were taken to the city of Bari, Italy, where they are still entombed today.

Of the many other stories told about or attributed to Nicholas, it’s hard to know with certainty which ones actually took place and which were simply attributed to him because of his already good and popular name. For instance, in the 12th century, stories began to surface of how Nicholas had brought three children back to life who had been brutally murdered. Even though the first recorded accounts of this story didn’t appear until more than 800 years after Nicholas’ death, this story is one of the most frequently associated with Saint Nicholas in religious artwork, featuring three young children being raised to life and standing next to Nicholas. We have included the essence of this story in this novel in the form of the three orphans who Nicholas met in the Holy Land and whom he helped to bring back to life–at least spiritually.

While all of these additional stories can’t be attributed to Nicholas with certainty, we can say that his life and his memory had such a profound effect throughout history that more churches throughout the world now bear the name of “Saint Nicholas” than any other figure, outside of the original disciples themselves.

Some people wonder if they can believe in Saint Nicholas or not. Nicholas probably wouldn’t care so much if you believed in him or not, but that you believed in the One in whom He believed, Jesus Christ.

A popular image today shows Saint Nicholas bowing down, his hat at his side, kneeling in front of baby Jesus in the manger. Although that scene could never have taken place in real life, for Saint Nicholas was born almost 300 years after the birth of Christ, the heart of that scene couldn’t be more accurate. Nicholas was a true believer in Jesus and he did worship, adore and live his life in service to the Christ.

Saint Nicholas would have never wanted his story to replace the story of Jesus in the manger, but he would have loved to have his story point to Jesus in the manger. And that’s why this book was written.

While the stories told here were selected from the many that have been told about Saint Nicholas over the years, these were told so that you might believe–not just in Nicholas, but in Jesus Christ, his Savior. These stories were written down for the same reason the Apostle John wrote down the stories he recorded about Jesus in the Bible. John said he wrote his stories:

“…that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

Nicholas would want the same for you. He would want you to become what he was: a Believer.

If you’ve never done so, put your faith in Jesus Christ today, asking Him to forgive you of your sins and giving you the assurance that you will live with Him forever.

If you’ve already put your faith in Christ, let this story remind you just how precious your faith really is. Renew your commitment today to serve Christ as Nicholas served Him: with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. God really will work all things together for good. As the Bible says:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Thanks for reading this special book about this special man, and I pray that your Christmas may be truly merry and bright. As Clement Moore said in his now famous poem, A Visit From St. Nicholas:

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Eric Elder

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Eric & Lana Elder have written numerous Christmas stories that have captivated and inspired thousands as part of an annual Christmas production known as The Bethlehem Walk.

St. Nicholas: The Believer marks the debut of their first full-length Christmas story. Eric & Lana have also collaborated on several other inspirational books including:

• Two Weeks With God
• What God Says About Sex
• Exodus: Lessons In Freedom
• Jesus: Lessons In Love
• Acts: Lessons In Faith
• Nehemiah: Lessons In Rebuilding
• Ephesians: Lessons In Grace
• Israel: Lessons From The Holy Land
• Israel For Kids: Lessons From The Holy Land
• The Top 20 Passages In The Bible
• Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
• and Making The Most Of The Darkness

To order or learn more, please visit:  www.InspiringBooks.com

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

(If you missed some of this story, here’s a link to read the whole of the story online OR you can get the paperback or eBook as a keepsake for yourself or others to reread again in the future in our online bookstore.)

Here are a few pictures of St. Nicholas statues you can still see today in Demre, Turkey: on the left is my favorite because of the strength, humanity and love for children portrayed; on the top right is an earlier version by another sculptor on display in front of the church of St. Nicholas; and on the bottom right is a portrayal of Nicholas in his role as the Bishop of Myra (present-day Demre), which stands in a courtyard of the church.

And here’s a short video of my favorite statue of St. Nicholas, sculpted by Necdet Can and placed in the town square of Demre, Turkey, where Nicholas lived and ministered in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.

Click to watch a 360-degree video of the St. Nicholas Statue in Demre, Turkey

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ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
Part 4 of 7

by Eric & Lana Elder

 
I’m in Columbia, South Carolina this weekend for the opening of “One Life,” the new Christmas ballet based on my story, “St. Nicholas: The Believer.” The show is a WONDER-FILLED adaptation of the book. I would love for all of you to be able to see it someday!

Today I’m posting Part 4 of the book so you can read or listen along and enjoy. I am hearing from so many people how the book is touching them this holiday season. Even if you haven’t read any parts up to now, you can read today’s Part and be touched by it as it contains one of the most famous stories from Nicholas’s real life.

I pray you’ll have a renewed love for Jesus this Christmas.

ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
A new story for Christmas based on the old story of St. Nicholas
by Eric & Lana Elder

Click here to listen to Part 4 of the Audiobook, St. Nicholas: The Believer

PART 4

CHAPTER 18

Nicholas’ next step in life was about to be determined by a dream. But it wasn’t a dream that Nicholas had conceived–it was a dream that God had conceived and had put in the mind of a man, a priest in the city of Myra.

In the weeks leading up to Nicholas’ arrival in Myra, a tragedy had befallen the church there. Their aging bishop, the head of their church, had died. The tragedy that had fallen upon the church wasn’t the bishop’s death, for he had lived a long and fruitful life and had simply succumbed to the effects of old age. The tragedy arose out of the debate that ensued regarding who should take his place as the next bishop.

While it would seem that such things could be resolved amicably, especially within a church, when people’s hearts are involved, their loyalties and personal desires can sometimes muddy their thoughts so much that they can’t see what God’s will is in a particular situation. It can be hard for anyone, even for people of faith, to keep their minds free from preconceived ideas and personal preferences regarding what God may, or may not, want to do at any given time.

This debate was the storm that had been brewing for a week now, and which had reached its apex the night before Nicholas’ arrival.

That night one of the priests had a dream that startled him awake. In his dream he saw a man whom he had never seen before who was clearly to take up the responsibilities of their dearly departed bishop. When he woke from his dream, he remembered nothing about what the man looked like, but only remembered his name: Nicholas.

“Nicholas?” asked one of the other priests when he heard his fellow priest’s dream. “None of us have ever gone by that name, nor is there anyone in the whole city by that name.”

Nicholas was, to be sure, not a popular name at the time. It was only mentioned once in passing in one of Luke’s writings about the early church, along with other names which were just as uncommon in those days in Myra like Procorus, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas. It seemed ridiculous to the other priests that this dream could possibly be from God. But the old priest reminded them, “Even the name of Jesus was given to His father by an angel in a dream.”

Perhaps it was this testimony from the gospels, or perhaps it was the unlikelihood that it would ever happen, that the priests all agreed that they would strongly consider the next person who walked through their door who answered to the name of Nicholas. It would certainly help to break the deadlock in which they found themselves.

What a surprise then, when they opened their doors for their morning prayers, when an entire shipload of men started to stream into the church!

The priests greeted each of the men at the door as they entered, welcoming them into the church. The last two to enter were the captain and Nicholas, as they had allowed all of the others to enter first. The captain thanked the priests for opening their doors to them for their morning prayers, then turned to Nicholas and said, “And thanks to Nicholas for having this brilliant idea to come here today.”

The astonished priests looked at one another in disbelief. Perhaps God had answered their prayers after all.

CHAPTER 19

The captain’s concern about what to do with the grain on his ship dissipated when they arrived at the church as fast as the storm had dissipated when they arrived on shore.

Within moments of beginning their morning prayers, he was convinced that it could only have been the mighty hand of God that had held their rudder straight and true. He knew now for sure he wanted to make an offering of the grain to the people who lived there. God spoke to him about both the plan and the amount. It was as if the captain were playing the role of Abraham in the old, old story when Abraham offered a portion of his riches to Melchizedek the priest.

The captain was willing to take his chances with his superiors in Rome rather than take any chances with the God who had delivered them all. He knew that without God’s guidance and direction so far on this journey, neither he nor his men nor the ship nor its grain would have ever made it to Rome at all.

When the captain stood up from his prayers, he quickly found Nicholas to share the answer with him as well. Nicholas agreed both to the plan and to the amount. The captain asked, “Do you think it will be enough for all these people?”

Nicholas replied, “Jesus was able to feed 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish—and what you want to give to this city is much more than what Jesus had to start with!”

“How did He do it?” asked the captain—almost to himself as much as to Nicholas.

“All I know,” answered Nicholas, “is that He looked up to heaven, gave thanks and began passing out the food with His disciples. In the end everyone was satisfied and they still had twelve baskets full of food left over!”

“That’s exactly what we’ll do then, too,” said the captain.

And the story would be told for years to come how the captain of the ship looked up to heaven, gave thanks and began passing out the grain with his crew. It was enough to satisfy the people of that city for two whole years and to plant and reap even more in the third year.

As the priests said goodbye to the captain and crew, they asked Nicholas if he would be able to stay behind for a time. The winds of confusion that had whipped up and then subsided inside the captain’s mind were about to pale in comparison to the storm that was about to break open inside the mind of Nicholas.

CHAPTER 20

When the priests told Nicholas about their dream and that he just might be the answer to their prayers, Nicholas was dumbfounded and amazed, excited and perplexed. He had often longed to be used by God in a powerful way, and it was unmistakable that God had already brought him straight across the Great Sea to this very spot at this very hour!

But to become a priest, let alone a bishop, would be a decision that would last a lifetime. He had oftentimes considered taking up his earthly father’s business. His father had been highly successful at it, and Nicholas felt he could do the same. But even more important to him than doing the work of his father was to have a family like his father.

Nicholas’ memories of his parents were so fond that he longed to create more memories of his own with a family of his own. The custom of all the priests Nicholas knew, however, was to abstain from marriage and child-bearing so they could more fully devote themselves to the needs of the community around them.

Nicholas pulled back mentally at the thought of having to give up his desire for a family of his own. It wasn’t that having a family was a conscious dream that often filled his thoughts, but it was one of those assumptions in the back of his mind that he took for granted would come at some point in his future.

The shock of having to give up on the idea of a family, even before he had fully considered having one yet, was like a jolt to his system. Following God’s will shouldn’t be so difficult, he thought! But he had learned from his parents that laying down your will for the sake of God’s will wasn’t always so easy, another lesson they had learned from Jesus.

So just because it was a difficult decision wasn’t enough to rule it out. An image also floated through his mind of those three smiling faces he had met when he first landed in the Holy Land, with their heads bowed down and their hands outstretched. Hadn’t they seemed like family to him? And weren’t there hundreds—even thousands—of children just like them, children who had no family of their own, no one to care for them, no one to look after their needs?

And weren’t there countless others in the world—widows and widowers and those who had families in name but not in their actual relationships—who still needed the strength and encouragement and sense of family around them? And weren’t there still other families as well, like Nicholas and his parents, who had been happy on their own but found additional happiness when they came together as the family of believers in their city? Giving up on the idea of a family of his own didn’t mean he had to give up on the idea of having a family altogether. In fact, it may even be possible that he could have an even larger “family” in this way.

The more Nicholas thought about what he might give up in order to serve God in the church, the more he thought about how God might use this new position in ways that went beyond Nicholas’ own thoughts and desires. And if God was indeed in this decision, perhaps it had its own special rewards in the end.

The fury of the storm that swept through his mind began to abate. In its place, God’s peace began to flow over both his mind and his heart. Nicholas recognized this as the peace of God’s divine will being clearly revealed to him. It only took another moment for Nicholas to know what his answer would be.

The storms that had once seemed so threatening–whether the storm at sea or the storm in the church or the storms in the minds of both the captain and Nicholas–now turned out to be blessings of God instead. They were blessings that proved to Nicholas once again that no matter what happened, God really could work all things for good for those who loved Him and who were called according to His purpose.

Yes, if the priests would have him, Nicholas would become the next bishop of Myra.

CHAPTER 21

Nicholas didn’t suddenly become another man when he became a bishop. He became a bishop because of the man he already was. As he had done before with his father so many years earlier, Nicholas continued to do now, here in the city of Myra and the surrounding towns: walking and praying and asking God where he could be of most help.

It was on one of these prayerful walks that Nicholas met Anna Maria. She was a beautiful girl only eleven years old, but her beauty was disguised to most others by the poverty she wore. Nicholas found her one day trying to sell flowers that she had made out of braided blades of grass. But the beauty of the flowers also seemed to be disguised to everyone but Nicholas, for no one would buy her simple creations.

As Nicholas stepped towards her, she reminded him instantly of little Ruthie, whom he had left behind in the Holy Land, with the golden flowers in her hand on the hillsides of Bethlehem.

When he stopped for a closer look, God spoke to his heart. It seemed to Nicholas that this must have been what Moses felt when he stopped to look at the burning bush in the desert, a moment when his natural curiosity turned into a supernatural encounter with the Living God.

“Your flowers are beautiful,” said Nicholas. “May I hold one?”

The young girl handed him one of her creations. As he looked at it, he looked at her. The beauty he saw in both the flower and the girl was stunning. Somehow Nicholas had the ability to see what others could not see, or did not see, as Nicholas always tried to see people and things and life the way God saw them, as if God were looking through his eyes.

“I’d like to buy this one, if I could,” he said.

Delighted, she smiled for the first time. She told him the price, and he gave her a coin.

“Tell me,” said Nicholas, “what will you do with the money you make from selling these beautiful flowers?”

What Nicholas heard next broke his heart.

Anna Maria was the youngest of three sisters: Sophia, Cecilia and Anna Maria. Although their father loved them deeply, he had been plunged into despair when his once-successful business had failed, and then his wife passed away shortly thereafter. Lacking the strength and the resources to pick himself up out of the darkness, the situation for his family grew bleaker and bleaker.

Anna Maria’s oldest sister, Sophia, had just turned 18, and she turned a number of heads as well. But no one would marry her because her father had no dowry to offer to any potential suitor. And with no dowry, there was little likelihood that she, nor any of the three girls, would ever be married.

The choices facing their father were grim. He knew he must act soon or risk the possibility of Cecilia and Anna Maria never getting married in the future, either. With no way to raise a suitable dowry for her, and being too proud to take charity from others, even if someone had had the funds to offer to him, her father was about to do the unthinkable: he was going to sell his oldest daughter into slavery to help make ends meet.

How their father could think this was the best solution available to him, Nicholas couldn’t imagine. But he also knew that desperation often impaired even the best-intentioned men. By sacrificing his oldest daughter in this way, the father reasoned that perhaps he could somehow spare the younger two from a similar fate.

Anna Maria, for her part, had come up with the idea of making and selling flowers as a way to spare her sister from this fate that was to her worse than death. Nicholas held back his tears out of respect for Anna Maria and the noble effort she was making to save her sister.

He also refrained from buying Anna Maria’s whole basket of flowers right there on the spot, for Nicholas knew it would take more than a basket full of flowers to save Sophia. It would take a miracle. And as God spoke to his heart that day, Nicholas knew that God just might use him to deliver it.

CHAPTER 22

Without show and without fanfare, Nicholas offered a prayer for Anna Maria, along with his thanks for the flower, and encouraged her to keep doing what she could to help her family–and to keep trusting in God to do what she couldn’t.

Nicholas knew he could help this family. He knew he had the resources to make a difference in their lives, for he still had a great deal of his parents’ wealth hidden in the cliffs near the coast for occasions such as this. But he also knew that Anna Maria’s proud father would never accept charity from any man, even at this bleakest hour.

Her father’s humiliation at losing his business, along with his own personal loss, had blinded him to the reality of what was about to happen to his daughter. Nicholas wanted to help, but how? How could he step into the situation without further humiliating Anna Maria’s father, possibly causing him to refuse the very help that Nicholas could extend to him. Nicholas did what he always did when he needed wisdom. He prayed. And before the day was out, he had his answer.

Nicholas put his plan into action–and none too soon! It just so happened that the next day was the day when Sophia’s fate would be sealed.

Taking a fair amount of gold coins from his savings, Nicholas placed them into a small bag. It was small enough to fit in one hand, but heavy enough to be sure that it would adequately supply the need.

Hiding under the cover of night, he crossed the city of Myra to the home where Anna Maria, her father and her two older sisters lived.

He could hear them talking inside as he quietly approached the house. Their mood was understandably downcast as they discussed what they thought was their inevitable next step. They asked God to give them the strength to do whatever they needed to do.

For years, Sophia and her sisters had dreamed of the day when they would each meet the man of their dreams. They had even written love songs to these men, trusting that God would bring each of them the perfect man at the perfect time.

Now it seemed like all their songs, all their prayers and all their dreams had been in vain. Sophia wasn’t the only one who felt the impact of this new reality, for her two younger sisters knew that the same fate might one day await each of them.

The girls wanted to trust God, but no matter how hard they thought about their situation, each of them felt like their dreams were about to be shattered.

At Anna Maria’s prompting, they tried to sing their favorite love song one more time, but their sadness simply deepened at the words. It was no longer a song of hope, but a song of despair, and the words now seemed so impossible to them.

It was not just a song, but a prayer, and one of the deepest prayers Nicholas had ever heard uttered by human tongue. His heart went out to each of them, while at the same time it pounded with fear. He had a plan, and he hoped it would work, but he had no way of knowing for sure. He wasn’t worried about what might happen to him if he were discovered, but he was worried that their father would reject his gift if he knew where it had come from. That would certainly seal the girls’ doom. As Sophia and Cecilia and Anna Maria said their goodnights–and their father had put out the lights–Nicholas knew that his time had come.

Inching closer to the open window of the room where they had been singing, Nicholas bent down low to his knees. He lobbed the bag of coins into the air and through the window. It arced gracefully above him and seemed to hang in the air for a moment before landing with a soft thud in the center of the room. A few coins bounced loose, clinking faintly on the ground, rolling and then coming to a stop. Nicholas turned quickly and hid in the darkness nearby as the girls and their father awoke at the sound.

They called out to see if anyone was there, but when they heard no answer, they entered the room from both directions. As their father lit the light, Anna Maria was the first to see it–and gasped.

There, in the center of the room, lay a small round bag, shimmering with golden coins at the top. The girls gathered around their father as he carefully picked up the bag and opened it.

It was more than enough gold to provide a suitable dowry for Sophia, with more to spare to take care of the rest of the family for some time to come!

But where could such a gift have come from? The girls were sure it had come from God Himself in answer to their prayers! But their father wanted to know more. Who had God used to deliver it? Certainly no one they knew. He sprinted out of the house, followed by his daughters, to see if he could find any trace of the deliverer, but none could be found.

Returning back inside, and with no one to return the money to, the girls and their father got down on their knees and thanked God for His deliverance.

As Nicholas listened in the darkness, he too gave thanks to God, for this was the very thing Nicholas hoped they would do. He knew that the gift truly was from God, provided by God and given through Nicholas by God’s prompting in answer to their prayers. Nicholas had only given to them what God had given to him in the first place. Nicholas neither wanted nor needed any thanks nor recognition for the gift. God alone deserved their praise.

But by allowing Nicholas to be involved, using Nicholas’ own hands and his own inheritance to bless others, Nicholas felt a joy that he could hardly contain. By delivering the gift himself, Nicholas was able to ensure that the gift was properly given. And by giving the gift anonymously, he was able to ensure that the true Giver of the gift was properly credited.

The gift was delivered and God got the credit. Nicholas had achieved both of his goals.

CHAPTER 23

While Nicholas preferred to do his acts of goodwill in secret, there were times when, out of sheer necessity, he had to act in broad daylight. And while it was his secret acts that gained him favor with God, it was his public acts that gained him favor with men.

Many people rightly appreciate a knight in shining armor, but not everyone wants to be rescued from evil–especially those who profit from it.

One such man was a magistrate in Myra, a leader in the city who disliked Nicholas intensely–or anyone who stood in the way of what he wanted.

This particular magistrate was both corrupt and corruptible. He was willing to do anything to get what he wanted, no matter what it cost to others. Although Nicholas had already been at odds with him several times in the past, their conflict escalated to a boiling point when news reached Nicholas that the magistrate had sentenced three men to death–for a crime Nicholas was sure they did not commit. Nicholas couldn’t wait this time for the cover of darkness. He knew he needed to act immediately to save these men from death.

Nicholas had been entertaining some generals from Rome that afternoon whose ship had docked in Myra’s port the night before. Nicholas had invited the generals to his home to hear news about some changes that had been taking place in Rome. A new emperor was about to take power, they said, and the implications might be serious for Nicholas and his flock of Christ-followers.

It was during their luncheon that Nicholas heard about the unjust sentencing and the impending execution. Immediately he set out for the site where the execution was to take place. The three generals, sensing more trouble might ensue once Nicholas arrived, set out after him.

When Nicholas burst onto the execution site, the condemned men were already on the platform. They were bound and bent over with their heads and necks ready for the executioner’s sword.

Without a thought for his own safety, Nicholas leapt onto the platform and tore the sword from the executioner’s hands. Although Nicholas was not a fighter himself, Nicholas made his move so unexpectedly that the executioner made little attempt to try to wrestle the sword back out of the bishop’s hands.

Nicholas knew these men were as innocent as the magistrate was guilty. He was certain that it must have been the men’s good deeds, not their bad ones, that had offended the magistrate. Nicholas untied the ropes of the innocent men in full view of the onlookers, defying both the executioner and the magistrate.

The magistrate came forward to face Nicholas squarely. But as he did so, the three generals who had been having lunch with Nicholas also stepped forward. One took his place on Nicholas’ left, another on Nicholas’ right and the third stood directly in front of him. Prudently, the magistrate took a step back. Nicholas knew that this was the time to press the magistrate for the truth.

Although the magistrate tried to defend himself, his pleas of fell on deaf ears. No one would believe his lies anymore. He tried to convince the people that it was not he who wanted to condemn these innocent men, but two other businessmen in town who had given him a bribe in order to have these men condemned. But by trying to shift the blame to others, the magistrate condemned himself for the greed that was in his heart.

Nicholas declared: “It seems that it was not these two men who have corrupted you, sir, but two others–whose names are Gold and Silver!”

Cut to the quick, the magistrate broke down and made a full confession in front of all the people for this and for all the other wrongs he had done, even for speaking ill of Nicholas, who had done nothing but good for the people. Nicholas set more than three prisoners free that day, as even the magistrate was finally set free from his greed by his honest confession. Seeing the heartfelt change in the magistrate, Nicholas pardoned him, forever winning the magistrate’s favor–and the people’s favor–from that moment on.

When Nicholas was born, his parents had named him Nicholas, which means in Greek “the people’s victor.” Through acts like these, Nicholas became “the people’s victor” both in name and in deed.

Nicholas was already becoming an icon–even in his own time.

CHAPTER 24

Within three months of receiving her unexpected dowry from Nicholas, Sophia had received a visit from a suitor–one who “suited her” just fine. He truly was the answer to her prayers, and she was thankfully, happily and finally married.

Two years later, however, Sophia’s younger sister Cecilia found herself in dire straights as well. Although Cecilia was ready to be married now, her father’s business had not improved, no matter how hard he tried. As the money that Nicholas had given to the family began to run out, their despair began to set in. Pride and sorrow had once again blinded Cecilia’s father to the truth, and he felt his only option was to commit Cecilia to a life of slavery, hoping to save his third and final daughter from a similar fate.

While they were confident that God had answered their prayers once, their circumstances had caused them to doubt that He could do it again. A second rescue at this point was more than they could have asked for or imagined.

Nicholas, however, knowing their situation by this time much more intimately, knew that God was prompting him again to intercede. It had been two years since his earlier rescue, but in all that time the family never suspected nor discovered that he was the deliverer of God’s gift.

As the time came closer to a decision on what they should do next, Nicholas knew his time to act had come as well. And in order to make it clear that his gift was to be used first and foremost for Cecilia’s dowry, and then after that for any other needs the family might have, he waited until the night before she was to be sold into slavery to make his move.

Once again waiting for the cover of darkness, Nicholas approached their house. Cecilia and Anna Maria had already gone to bed early that night, sent there by their father who had told them not to expect any similar miracle to what happened for Sophia. But somewhere in the depths of his despair, their father still had a glimmer of hope in his heart, a wish perhaps, more than anything else, that Someone really was watching out for him and that his prayers just might still be answered. With that hope, he decided to stay awake and stay close to the window, just in case some angel did appear–whether an earthly one or a heavenly one.

Nicholas knew this might happen, and he knew that Cecilia’s father might still reject his gift if he found out that Nicholas had given it. But he also hoped that perhaps her father’s proud heart had softened a bit and he would accept the gift even if Nicholas was discovered.

Seeing that the house was perfectly quiet, Nicholas knelt down beside the open window. He tossed the second bag of gold into the room.

The bag had barely hit the ground when the girls’ father leapt out of the window through which it had come and overtook Nicholas as he tried to flee. You might have thought that Nicholas had taken a bag of gold rather than given a bag of gold the way the girls’ father chased him down!

Fearing that all his efforts had been wasted, Nicholas’ heart was eased as the man didn’t rebuke Nicholas but thanked him without even looking at who he had caught.

“Please hear me out,” he said. “I just want to thank you. You’ve done so much already for me and my family that I couldn’t have expected such a gift again. But your generosity has opened my eyes to the pride in my heart–a pride that almost cost me the lives of two daughters now.”

The girls’ father had spoken both breathlessly and quickly to be sure that the stranger would hear him before trying to escape again. But when he looked up to see who he was talking to–Nicholas the priest–the shock on their father’s face was evident. How could a priest afford to give such an incredible gift?

In answer to this unasked question, Nicholas spoke: “Yes, it was I who delivered this gift to you, but it was God who gave it to me to give to you. It is not from the church and not from the charity of my own hand. It came from my father who earned it fairly by the work of his hands. He was a businessman like you. And if he were alive today, he would have wanted to give it to you himself. I’m sure of it. He, of all people, knew how difficult it was to run a business, just as you do. He also loved his family, just as you do, too.”

Nicholas paused to let his words sink in, then continued, “But please, for my sake and for God’s sake, please know that it was God Himself who has answered your prayers–for He has. I am simply a messenger for Him, a deliverer, a tool in His hands, allowing Him to do through me what I know He wants done. As for me, I prefer to do my giving in secret, not even letting my right hand know what my left hand is doing.”

The look on Nicholas’ face was so sincere and he conveyed his intentions with such love and devotion for the One whom he served, that the girls’ father could not help but to accept Nicholas’ gift as if it had truly come from the hand of God Himself.

But as they said their goodbyes, the girls and their father could hardly contain their thankfulness to Nicholas, too, for letting God use him in such a remarkable way.

As much as Nicholas tried to deflect their praise back to God, he also knew he did have a role to play in their lives. Although God prompts many to be generous in their hearts, not everyone responds to those promptings as Nicholas did.

Nicholas would wait to see how the family fared over the next few years to see if they would need any help for Anna Maria, too.

But Nicholas never got the chance. The new emperor had finally come into power, and the course of Nicholas’ life was about to change again. Even though Nicholas often came to the rescue of others, there were times when, like the Savior he followed, it seemed he was unable to rescue himself.

To be continued…next week!

(Or if you can’t wait, here’s a link to keep reading the rest of the story online OR you can get the paperback or eBook as a gift for yourself or others in our online bookstore.)

Here are a few pictures inside the St. Nicholas Church in Myra (present-day Demre), Turkey, which was has been built and rebuilt over the spot where St Nicholas’ bones were first entombed. The pictures here show an archway with a mosaic floor, light streaming into the main sanctuary, a tomb which has been broken into (Nicholas’ bones were removed in a nighttime raid in A.D. 1087 when they were under threat of destruction by invaders, then taken to Bari, Italy, where they remain today), and a fresco on a domed ceiling featuring Jesus and His disciples.

And here’s a 90-second video I shot of the church itself and how it impacted me when I first walked into it.

Click here to see a 90-second video of the Church of St. Nicholas in Myra, Turkey

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ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
Part 3 of 7

by Eric & Lana Elder

 
Today I’m posting Part 3 of 7 of St. Nicholas: The Believer, a new story for Christmas based on the old story of St. Nicholas! If you haven’t read parts 1 and 2, you can still read (or listen for free!) at this link.

Next weekend is the PREMIERE of “ONE LIFE,” a new ballet based on this book. I’ve just finished recording the final narrations that will tell the story between the scenes of the ballet. I’m so excited to see the book come to life. If you want to take a road trip/plane trip to South Carolina, I’ll be there!

And if you’re looking for a Sunday morning church service online, you can watch one live at 9 or 11 a.m. (CST) at live.eastview.church and recorded for playback anytime the same link.

Click here to listen to Part 3 of St. Nicholas: The Believer, or read the full text of Part 3 below!

ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
A new story for Christmas based on the old story of St. Nicholas
by Eric & Lana Elder

PART 3

CHAPTER 12

Once again, Nicholas was standing on a beach, alone. This time, however, it was on the shores of the Holy Land, looking back across the Great Sea towards his home.

In the months following his visit to Bethlehem, Nicholas, along with his young guide and bodyguards, had searched for every holy place that they could find that related to Jesus. They had retraced Jesus’ steps from His boyhood village in Nazareth to the fishing town of Capernaum, where Jesus had spent most of His adult years.

They had waded into the Jordan River where Jesus had been baptized and they swam in the Sea of Galilee where He had walked on the water and calmed the storm.

They had visited the hillside where Jesus had taught about the kingdom of heaven, and they had marveled at the spot where He had multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fish to feed a crowd of over 5,000 people.

While it was in Bethlehem that Nicholas was filled with wonder and awe, it was in Jerusalem where he was filled with mission and purpose. Walking through the streets where Jesus had carried His cross to His own execution, Nicholas felt the weight on his shoulders as if he were carrying a cross as well. Then seeing the hill where Jesus had died, and the empty tomb nearby where Jesus had risen from the dead, Nicholas felt the weight on his shoulders lifting off, as Jesus must have felt when He emerged from the tomb in which He had been sealed.

It was in that moment that Nicholas knew what his mission and purpose in life would be: to point others to the One who would lift their burdens off as well. He wanted to show them that they no longer had to carry the burdens of their sin, pain, sickness and need all alone. He wanted to show them that they could cast all their cares on Jesus, knowing that Jesus cared for them. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened,” Jesus had said, “and I will give you rest.”

The stories Nicholas had heard as a child were no longer vague and distant images of things that might have been. They were stories that had taken on new life for him, stories that were now three dimensional and in living color. It wasn’t just the fact that he was seeing these places with his own eyes. Others had done that, and some were even living there in the land themselves, but they had still never felt what Nicholas was feeling. What made the difference for Nicholas was that he was seeing these stories through the eyes of faith, through the eyes of a Believer, as one who now truly believed all that had taken place.

As his adventures of traveling to each of the holy sites came to an end, Nicholas returned to the spot where he had first felt the presence of God so strongly: to Bethlehem. He felt that in order to prepare himself better for his new calling in life, he should spend as much time as he could living and learning in this special land. While exploring the city of Bethlehem and its surroundings, he found another cave nearby, in the city of Beit Jala, that was similar to the cave in which Jesus had been born. He took up residence there in the cave, planning to spend as much time as he could living and learning how to live in this land where His Savior had lived.

Dimitri, Samuel and Ruthie had gained a new sense of mission and purpose for their lives as well. As much as they wanted to stay with Nicholas, they felt even more compelled to continue their important work of bringing more people to see these holy places. It was no longer just a way for them to provide a living for themselves, but they found it to be a holy calling, a calling to help others experience what they had experienced.

It had been four full years now since Nicholas had first arrived on this side of the Sea. During that time, he often saw his young friends as they brought more and more pilgrims to see what they had shown to Nicholas. In those few short years, he watched each of them grow up “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men,” just as Jesus had done in His youth in Nazareth.

Nicholas would have been very happy to stay here even longer, but the same Spirit of God that had drawn him to come was now drawing him back home. He knew that he couldn’t stay on this mountaintop forever. There were people who needed him, and a life that was waiting for him back home, back in the province of Lycia. What that life held for him, he wasn’t sure. With his parents gone, there was little to pull him back home, but it was simply the Spirit of God Himself, propelling him forward on the next leg of his journey.

Making arrangements for a ship home was harder than it was to find a ship to come here, for the calm seas of summer were nearing their end and the first storms of winter were fast approaching. But Nicholas was convinced that this was the time, and he knew that if he waited any longer, he might not make it home again until spring–and the Spirit’s pull was too strong for that kind of delay.

So when he heard that a ship was expected to arrive any day now, one of the last of the season to sail through here on its way from Alexandria to Rome, he quickly arranged for passage. The ship was to arrive the next morning, and he knew he couldn’t miss it.

He had sent word, through a shopkeeper, to try to find his three best friends to let them know that he would be sailing in the morning. But as the night sky closed in, he had still not heard a word from them.

So he stood there on the beach alone, contemplating all that had taken place and all that had changed in his life since coming to the Holy Land–and all that was about to change as he left it. The thoughts filled him with excitement, anticipation and, to be honest, just a little bit of fear.

CHAPTER 13

Although Nicholas’ ship arrived the following morning just as expected, the children didn’t.

Later that afternoon, when the time came for him to board and the three still hadn’t shown up, Nicholas sadly resigned himself to the possibility that they just might miss each other entirely. He had started walking toward the ship when he felt a familiar tug at his sleeve.

“You a Christian?” came the voice once again, but this time with more depth as about four years were added to his life. It was Dimitri, of course. Nicholas turned on the spot and smiled his broadest smile.

“Am I a Christian? Without a doubt!” he said as he saw all three of them offering smiles to him in return. “And you?” he added, speaking to all three of them at once.

“Without a doubt!” they replied, almost in unison. It was the way they had spoken about their faith ever since their shared experience in Bethlehem, an experience when their doubts about God had faded away.

As Nicholas tried to take in all three of their faces just one more time, he wondered which was more difficult: to leave this precious land, or to leave these three precious youth whom he had met there. They all knew that God had called them together for a purpose, and they all trusted that God must now be calling them apart for another purpose, too, just as Nicholas had previously felt he was to move to Bethlehem and they were to continue their work taking pilgrims from city to city.

But just because they knew what God’s will was, it didn’t mean it was always easy to follow it. As Nicholas had often reminded them, tears were one of the strongest signs of love in the world. Without tears at the loss of those things that matter most, it would be hard to tell if those things really mattered at all.

A lack of tears wouldn’t be a problem today. Once again, Nicholas asked them all to hold out their right hands in front of them. As he reached into his pocket to find three of his largest coins to place into each of their outstretched hands, he found he wasn’t fast enough. Within an instant, all three children had wrapped their arms completely around Nicholas’ neck, his back and his waist, depending on their height. They all held on as tightly as possible, and as long as possible, before one of the ship’s crewmen signaled to Nicholas that the time had come.

As Nicholas gave each of them one last squeeze, he secretly slipped a coin into each of their pockets. Throughout their time together, Nicholas’ gifts had helped the children immeasurably. But it wasn’t Nicholas’ presents that blessed them so much as it was his presence–his willingness to spend so much time with them. Still, Nicholas wanted to give them a final blessing that they could discover later when he was gone, as he often did his best giving in secret.

Nicholas wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry at the thought of this final gift to them, so he did a little of both. Under his breath, he also offered a prayer of thanks for each of their lives, then bid them farewell, one by one. The children’s hugs were the perfect send-off as he stepped onto the ship and headed for home–not knowing that their hugs and kind words would also help to carry him through the dark days that he was about to face ahead.

CHAPTER 14

The wind whipped up as soon as Nicholas’ ship left the shore. The ship’s captain had hoped to get a head start on the coming storm, sailing for a few hours along the coast to the harbor in the next city before docking again for the night. It was always a longer trip to go around the edges of the Great Sea, docking in city after city along the way, instead of going directly across to their destination. But going straight across was also more perilous, especially at this time of year. So to beat the approaching winter, and the more quickly approaching storm, they wanted to gain as many hours as they could along the way.

Keeping on schedule, Nicholas found out, was more than just a matter of a captain wanting to make good on his contract with his clients. It was also soon to become a matter of life and death for the families of the crew on board, including the family of the captain. Nicholas found out that a famine had begun to spread across the empire, now affecting the crew’s home city back in Rome. The famine had begun in the countryside as rain had been sparse in the outlying areas, but now the shortages in the country were starting to deplete the reserves in Rome as well. Prices were rising and even families who could afford to pay for food were quickly depleting their resources to get it.

The ship’s captain was not a foolish man, having sailed on these seas for almost 30 years. But he also knew that the risk of holding back on their voyage at a time like this could mean they would be grounded for the rest of the winter. If that happened, his cargo of grain might perish by spring, as well as his family. So the ship pressed on.

It looked to Nicholas like they had made the right decision to set sail. He, too, felt under pressure to get this voyage underway, although it wasn’t family or cargo that motivated him. It was the Spirit of God Himself. He wouldn’t have been able to explain it to anyone except to those who had already experienced it. All he knew was that it was imperative that they start moving.

He had thought he might spend still more time in the Holy Land, perhaps even his entire life. It felt like home to him from the very beginning, as he had heard so many stories about it when he was growing up. He had little family waiting for him elsewhere, and up to this point, he was content to stay right where he was, except for the Spirit’s prompting that it was time to go.

The feeling started as a restlessness at first, a feeling that he was suddenly no longer content to stay where he was. He couldn’t trace the feeling to anything particular that was wrong with where he was, just that it was time to go. But where? Where did God want him to go? Did God have another site for him to see? Another part of the country in which he was supposed to live? Perhaps another country altogether that he was supposed to visit?

As the restlessness grew, his heart and his mind began to explore the options in more detail. He had found in the past that the best way to hear from God was to let go of his own will so that he could fully embrace God’s will, whatever that may be. While letting go was always hard for him, he knew that God would always lead him in the ways that were best. So, finally letting go of his own will, Nicholas began to see God’s will much more clearly in this situation as well. As much as he felt like the Holy Land was his new home, it wasn’t really his home. He felt strongly that the time had come for him to return to the region where he had been born, to the province of Lycia on the northern coast of the Sea. There was something, he felt, that God wanted him to do there–something for which he had been specifically equipped and called to do, and was, in fact, the reason that God had chosen for him to grow up there when he was young. Just as Nicholas had felt drawn to come to the Holy Land, he now felt drawn to return home.

To home he was headed, and to home he must go. That inner drive that he felt was as strong–if not stronger–than the drive that now motivated the ship’s captain and crew to get their cargo home, safe and sound, to their precious families.

Storm or no storm, they had to get home.

CHAPTER 15

Nicholas’ ship never made it to the next harbor along the coast. Instead, the storm they were trying to outrun had outrun them. It caught hold of their ship, pulling it away from the coast within the first few hours at sea. It kept pulling them further and further away from the coast until, three hours later, they found themselves inescapably caught in its torrents.

The crew had already lowered the sails, abandoning their attempts to force the rudder in the opposite direction. They now hoped that by going with the storm rather than against it they would have a better chance of keeping the ship in one piece. But this plan, too, seemed only to drive them into the deepest and most dangerous waters, keeping them near the eye of the storm itself.

After another three hours had passed, the sea sickness that had initially overcome their bodies was no longer a concern, as the fear of death itself was now overtaking all but the most resilient of those on board.

Nicholas, although he had traveled by ship before, was not among those considered to be most resilient. He had never experienced pounding waves like this before. And he wasn’t the only one. To a man, as the storm worsened, each began to speak of this as the worst storm they had ever seen.

The next morning, when the storm still hadn’t let up, and then again on the next morning and the next, and as the waves were still pounding them, they were all wondering why they had been in such a hurry to set out to beat the storm. Now they just hoped and prayed that God would let them live to see one more day, one more hour. As wave after wave pummeled the ship, Nicholas was simply praying they would make it through even one more wave.

His thoughts and prayers were filled with images of what it must have been like for the Apostle Paul, that follower of Christ who had sailed back and forth across the Great Sea several times in similar ships. It was on Paul’s last trip to Rome that he had landed in Myra, only miles from Nicholas’ hometown. Then, as Paul continued on from Myra to Rome, he faced the most violent storm he had ever faced at sea, a raging fury that lasted more than fourteen days and ended with his ship being blasted to bits by the waves as it ran aground on a sandbar, just off the coast of the island of Malta.

Nicholas prayed that their battle with the wind wouldn’t last for fourteen days. He didn’t know if they could make it through even one more day. He tried to think if there was anything that Paul had done to help himself and the 276 men who were on his ship with him to stay alive, even though their ship and its cargo were eventually destroyed. But as hard as he tried to think, all he could remember was that an angel had appeared to Paul on the night before they ran aground. The angel told Paul to take heart–that even though the ship would be destroyed, not one of the men aboard would perish. When Paul told the men about this angelic visit, they all took courage, as Paul was convinced that it would happen just as the angel said it would. And it did.

But for Nicholas, no such angel had appeared. No outcome from heaven had been predicted and no guidance had come about what they should or shouldn’t do. All he felt was that inner compulsion that he had felt before they departed–that they needed to get home as soon as they could.

Not knowing what else to do, Nicholas recalled a phrase of his father’s: “standing orders are good orders.” If a soldier wasn’t sure what to do next, even if the battle around him seemed to change directions, if the commanding officer hadn’t changed the orders, then the soldier was to carry on with the most recent orders given. Standing orders are good orders. It was this piece of wisdom from his father, more than any other thought, that guided Nicholas and gave him the courage to do what he did next.

CHAPTER 16

When the storm seemed to be at its worst, Nicholas’ thoughts turned to the children he had just left. His thoughts of them didn’t fill him with sadness, but with hope.

He began to take courage from the stories they had all learned about how Jesus had calmed the storm, how Moses had split the Red Sea and how Joshua had made the Jordan River stop flowing. Nicholas and the children had often tried to imagine what it must have been like to be able to exercise control over the elements like that. Nicholas had even, on occasion, tried to do some of these things himself, right along with Dimitri, Samuel and Ruthie. When it rained, they lifted their hands and prayed to try to stop the rain from coming down. But it just kept raining on their heads. When they got to the Sea of Galilee, they tried to walk on top of the water, just like Jesus did–and even Peter did, if only for a few short moments. But Nicholas and the children assumed they must not have had enough faith or strength or whatever it might have taken for them to do such things.

As another wave crashed over the side of the ship on which Nicholas was now standing, he realized there was a common thread that ran through each of these stories. Maybe it wasn’t their faith that was the problem after all, but God’s timing. In each instance from the stories he could remember, God didn’t allow those miracles on a whim, just for the entertainment of the people who were trying to do them. God allowed them because God had places for them to go, people they needed to see and lives that needed to be spared. There was an urgency in each situation that required the people to accomplish not only what was on their heart, but what was on God’s heart as well.

It seemed that the miracles were provided not because of their attempts to try to reorder God’s world, but in God’s attempts to try to reorder their worlds. It seemed to Nicholas that it must be a combination of their prayers of faith, plus God’s divine will, that caused a spark between heaven and earth, ignited by their two wills working together, that burst into a power that could move mountains.

When Jesus needed to get across the lake, but His disciples had already taken off in the boat, He was able to ignite by faith the process that allowed Him to walk on water, and thereafter calm the storm that threatened to take their lives when He finally did catch up to them.

“Standing orders are good orders,” Nicholas recalled, and he believed with all his heart that if God hadn’t changed His orders, then somehow they needed to do whatever they could to get to the other side of the Sea. But it wasn’t enough for God to will it. God was looking for someone willing, here on earth to will it, too, thereby completing the divine connection and causing the miracle to burst forth. Like Moses when he lifted his staff into the air or Joshua’s priests who took the first steps into the Jordan River, God needed someone to agree with Him in faith that what He had willed to happen in heaven should happen here on earth. God had already told Nicholas what needed to happen. Now it was up to Nicholas to complete the divine connection.

“Men!” Nicholas yelled to get the crew’s attention. “The God whom I serve, and who Has given each one of us life, wants us to reach our destination even more than we want to reach it. We must agree in faith, here and now, that God not only can do it, but that He wills us to do it. If you love God, or even if you think you might want to love God, I want you to pray along with me, that we will indeed reach our destination, and that nothing will stand in the way of our journey!”

As soon as Nicholas had spoken these words, the unthinkable happened: not only did the wind not stop, but it picked up speed! Nicholas faltered for a moment as if he had made some sort of cosmic mistake, some sort of miscalculation about the way God worked and what God wanted him to do. But then he noticed that even though the wind had picked up speed, it had also shifted directions, ever so slightly, but in such a distinct and noticeable way that God had gotten the attention of every man on board. Now, instead of being pounded by the waves from both sides, they were sailing straight through them, as if a channel had been cut into the waves themselves. The ship was driven along like this, not only for the next several moments, but for the next several hours.

When the speed and direction of the ship continued to hold its steady but impressively fast course, the captain of the ship came to Nicholas. He said he had never seen anything like this in his whole life. It was as if an invisible hand was holding the rudder of the ship, steady and straight, even though the ropes that held the rudder were completely unmanned, as they had been abandoned long ago when the winds first reached gale force.

Nicholas knew, too–even though he was certainly not as well seasoned as the captain–that this was not a normal phenomenon on the seas. He felt something supernatural taking control the moment he first stood up to speak to the men, and he felt it still as they continued on their path straight ahead.

What lay before them he didn’t know. But what he did know was that the One who had brought them this far was not going to take His hand off that rudder until His mission was accomplished.

CHAPTER 17

The storm that they thought was going to take their lives turned out to be the storm that saved many more. Rather than going the long way around the sea, following the coastline in the process, the storm had driven them straight across it, straight into the most dangerous path that they never would have attempted on their own at that time of year.

When they sighted land early on the morning of the fifth day, they recognized it clearly. It was the city of Myra, just a few miles away from Nicholas’ hometown, and the same city where the Apostle Paul had changed ships on his famous journey to Rome.

It was close enough to home that Nicholas knew in his heart that he was about to land in the exact spot where God wanted him to be. God, without a doubt, had spared his life for a purpose, a purpose which would now begin the next chapter of his life.

As they sailed closer to the beach, they could see that the storm that raged at sea had hardly been felt on shore.

The rains that had flooded their ship for the past several days, and that should have been watering the land as well, hadn’t made it inland for several months. The drought that the captain and sailors had told him had come to Rome had already been here in Lycia for two and a half years. The cumulative effect was that the crops that were intended to supply their reserves for the coming winter and for next year’s seed had already been depleted. If the people of Lycia didn’t get grain to eat now, many would never make it through the winter, and still more would die the following spring, as they wouldn’t have seed to plant another crop. This ship was one of the last that had made it out of the fertile valleys of Egypt before the winter, and its arrival at this moment in time was like a miracle in the eyes of the people. It was certainly an answer to their prayers.

But that answer wasn’t so clear to the captain of the ship. He had been under strict orders from the keeper of the Imperial storehouses in Rome that not one kernel of grain could be missing when the ship arrived back in Rome. The ship had been weighed in Alexandria before it left Egypt and it would be weighed again in Rome–and the captain would be held personally responsible for any discrepancy. The famine had put increasing pressure on the emperor to bring any kind of relief to the people. Not only this, but the families of the captain and crew themselves were awaiting the arrival of this food. Their jobs, and the lives of their families, relied on the safe delivery of every bit of grain aboard.

Yet without the faith and encouragement of Nicholas, the captain knew that the ship and its cargo would have been lost at sea, along with all of their lives.

While it was clear to Nicholas that God had brought him back to his homeland, he too wasn’t entirely certain what to do about the grain. While it seemed that giving at least some of the grain to the people of Myra was in order, Nicholas still tried to see it from God’s perspective. Was this city, or any other city throughout the empire, any more in need of the grain than Rome, which had bought and paid for it to be delivered? But it also seemed to Nicholas that the ship had been driven specifically to this particular city, in a straight and steady line through the towering waves.

The whole debate of what they were to do next took place within just a matter of minutes of their arrival on shore. And Nicholas and the captain had little time to think through what they were going to do, as the people of the city were already running out to see the ship for themselves, having been amazed at the way God had seemingly brought it to their famished port. They were gathering in larger and larger numbers to welcome the boat, and giving thanks and praise to God at the same time.

Both Nicholas and the captain knew that only God Himself could answer their dilemma. The two of them, along with the rest of the crew, had already agreed the night before–as they were so steadily and swiftly being carried along through the water–that the first thing they would do when they arrived on shore was to go to the nearest church and give thanks to God for His deliverance. Upon seeing where they had landed, Nicholas knew exactly where they could find that church. It was one that his family had visited from time to time as they traveled between these twin cities of Patara and Myra. Telling the people that their first order of duty was to give thanks to God for their safe passage, Nicholas and the captain and his crew headed to the church in Myra.

As they made their way across the city and up into the hills that cradled the church, they had no idea that the priests inside its walls had already been doing battle with a storm of their own.

To be continued…next week!

(Or if you can’t wait, here’s a link to keep reading the rest of the story online OR you can get the paperback or eBook as a gift for yourself or others in our online bookstore.)

And here are some pictures my daughter and I took of the actual city of Myra (today known as Demre) on the coast of Turkey where the real St. Nicholas lived and ministered in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. You can see here some rock tombs, an archway under a theater, and the entrances and exits of the same theater from behind the stage.

And here’s a 30-second video of the famous rock tombs of Myra, which were carved into the mountainside several hundred years before Nicholas’ arrival there.

Click here to see the Rock Tombs in Myra, Turkey

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ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
Part 2 of 7

by Eric & Lana Elder

As a way to help you keep Christ in Christmas, I’m posting the full version of a heartwarming Christmas story I’ve written called St. Nicholas: The Believer. Today, I’m posting Part 2 of 7. If you missed Part 1, you can still read it online at this link.)

I’m excited to tell you that in two weeks I’ll be in Columbia, South Carolina attending the premiere of “ONE LIFE: A CHRISTMAS STORY BALLET,” which is based on our book!

I’m can’t wait to see the characters from our story spring to life in 3D, whirling and twirling in this new Christmas spectacular! If you’re in the South Carolina area, I hope you’ll stop by, see the show and say “Hi!”  You can learn more at: https://scchristiandance.com/one-life/

(And if you’re looking for a Sunday morning church service online, you can watch one live at 9 or 11 a.m. (CST) at live.eastview.church and recorded for playback anytime the same link.)

For now, enjoy Part 2 of our special Christmas story…

ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
A new story for Christmas based on the old story of St. Nicholas
by Eric & Lana Elder

Click here to listen to Part 2 of the Audiobook, St. Nicholas: The Believer.

PART 2

CHAPTER 6

Nicholas stood alone. He was on the same stretch of beach where his father had stood just ten years earlier, looking out at the sunrise and the waves on the seashore.

Nicholas’ father never made it out to look at the Great Sea again, having finally succumbed to the sickness himself. Nicholas’ mother passed away first, within two weeks of the first signs of illness. His father lasted another three days after that, as if holding on as long as he could to make sure his wife passed as peacefully as possible from this life to the next, and making sure Nicholas was as ready as possible to take the next steps in his own life.

Nicholas’ father didn’t shy away from tears, but he didn’t want them wasted on wrongful emotions either. “Don’t cry because it’s over,” his father had said to both his wife and his son. “Smile because it was beautiful.”

There was a time and place for anger and disappointment, but this wasn’t the time for either. If given the chance to do it all over again, his parents would have chosen to do exactly what they did. It was not foolishness, they said, to be willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, especially when there were no guarantees that they would have survived anyway.

As it turned out, the plague ended up taking the lives of almost a third of the people in Patara before it finally ran its course. The sickness seemed to have a mind of its own, affecting those who tried to shield themselves from it as well as those who, like his parents, had ventured out into the midst of it.

After the death of his parents, Nicholas felt a renewed sense of urgency to pick up where they had left off, visiting those who were sick and comforting the families of those who had died.

Then, almost as suddenly as it came to their city, the plague left. Nicholas had spent most of the next few weeks sleeping, trying to recover from the long days—and even longer nights—of ministering to those who were affected. When he was awake, he spent his time trying to process his own feelings and emotions in light of the loss of the family he loved. In so many ways, his parents were his life. His life was so intertwined with theirs, and having them taken so suddenly from him, he hardly knew what to do without them. He went to live with his uncle, a priest who lived in the monastery in Patara, until he was ready to venture out further into the world on his own. Now that time had come, and it was time for Nicholas to make his decision.

Unlike many others who had been orphaned by the plague, Nicholas had been left with a sizable inheritance. The question on his heart wasn’t what he would do to make a living, but what he would do to make a life. Through all that he had experienced, and now recognizing the brevity of life for himself, Nicholas now knew why his father had come so often to this shore to pray. Now it was Nicholas’ turn to consider his own future in light of eternity.

What should I do? Where should I go? How should I spend the rest of my days? The questions could have overwhelmed him, except that his father had prepared him well for moments like these, too.

His father, always a student of the writings of Scripture and of the life of Christ, had told him that Jesus taught that we needn’t worry so much about the trouble down the road as just the trouble for that day. Each day has enough trouble of its own, Jesus said.

As Nicholas thought about this, his burden lifted. He didn’t have to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life just yet. He only had to decide on his next step.

He had enough money to travel the length of the entire world back and forth three times and still have enough to live on for years to come. But that wasn’t really what he wanted to do. He had never had a desire to live wildly or lavishly, for the life he knew up to this point already gave him tremendous satisfaction. But there was one place he had always wanted to see with his own eyes.

As he looked out across the sea, to the south and to the west, he knew that somewhere in between lay the place he most wanted to visit—a land that seemed more precious in his mind than any other. It was the land where Jesus had lived, the land where He had walked and taught, the land where He was born and died, and the land where so many of the stories of His life—and almost the entirety of Scripture itself—had taken place.

Nicholas knew that some decisions in life were made only through the sweat and agony of prayer, trying desperately to decide between two seemingly good, but mutually exclusive paths. But this decision was not one of them. This was one of those decisions that, by the nature of the circumstances, was utterly simple to make. Apart from his uncle, there was little more to keep him in Patara, and nothing to stop him from following the desire that had been on his heart for so long.

He was glad his father had shown him this spot, and he was glad that he had come to it again today. He knew exactly what he was going to do next. His decision was as clear as the water in front of him.

CHAPTER 7

Nicholas’ arrival on the far shores of the Great Sea came sooner than he could have imagined. For so long he had wondered what it would be like to walk where Jesus walked, and now, at age 19, he was finally there.

Finding a boat to get there had been no problem, for his hometown of Patara was one of the main stopovers for ships traveling from Egypt to Rome, carrying people and cargo alike. Booking passage was as simple as showing that you had the money to pay, which Nicholas did.

But now that he had arrived, where would he go first? He wanted to see everything at once, but that was impossible. A tug at his sleeve provided the answer.

“You a Christian?” the small voice asked.

Nicholas looked down to see a boy not more than ten looking up at him. Two other children giggled nearby. To ask this question so directly, when it was dangerous in general to do so, showed that the boy was either a sincere follower of Christ looking for a fellow believer, or it showed that he had ulterior motives in mind. From the giggles of his little friends nearby, a boy and a girl just a bit younger than the one who had spoken, Nicholas knew it was probably the latter.

“You a Christian?” the boy asked again. “I show you holy places?”

Ah, that’s it, thought Nicholas. Enough pilgrims had obviously come here over the years that even the youngest inhabitants knew that pilgrims would need a guide once they arrived. Looking over the three children again, Nicholas felt they would suit him just fine. Nicholas had a trusting heart, and while he wasn’t naive enough to think that trouble wouldn’t find him here, he also trusted that the same God who had led him here would also provide the help he needed once he arrived. Even if these children were doing it just for the money, that was all right with Nicholas. Money he had. A map he didn’t. He would gladly hire them to be his living maps to the holy places.

“Yes, and yes,” Nicholas answered. “Yes, I am indeed a Christian. And if you would like to take me, then yes, I would be very interested to see the holy places. I would love for your friends to come along with us, too. That way, if we meet any trouble, they can defend us all!”

The boy’s mouth dropped open and his friends giggled again. It wasn’t the answer the boy had expected at all, at least not so fast and not without a great deal of pestering on his part. Pilgrims who arrived were usually much more skeptical when they stepped off their boats, shooing away anyone who approached them—at least until they got their land legs back and their bearings straight. But the boy quickly recovered from his shock and immediately extended his right hand in front of him, palm upraised, with a slight bow of his head. It gave Nicholas the subtle impression as if to say that the boy was at Nicholas’ service—and the not-so-subtle impression that the boy was ready for something to be deposited in his open hand. Nicholas, seeing another opportunity to throw the boy off guard, happily obliged.

He gently placed three of his smallest, but shiniest coins into the boy’s upraised palm and said, “My name is Nicholas. And I can see you’re a wise man. Now, if you’re able to keep your hand open even after I’ve set these coins in it, you’ll be even wiser still. For he who clenches his fist tightly around what he has received will find it hard to receive more. But he who opens his hand freely to heaven—freely giving in the same way that he has freely received—will find that his Father in heaven will usually not hold back in giving him more.”

Nicholas motioned with his hand that he intended for the boy to share what he had received with his friends, who had come closer at the appearance of the coins. The boy obviously was the spokesman for all three, but still he faltered for a moment as to what to do. This man was so different from anyone else the boy had ever approached. With others, the boy was always trying, usually without success, to coax even one such coin from their pockets, but here he had been given three in his very first attempt! The fact that the coins weren’t given grudgingly, but happily, did indeed throw him off balance. He had never heard such a thought like that of keeping his hands open to give and receive. His instinct would have been to instantly clench his fist tightly around the coins, not letting go until he got to the safest place he could find, and only then could he carefully inspect them and let their glimmers shine in his eyes. Yet he stood stock still, with his hand still outstretched and his palm facing upward. Almost against his own self-will, he found himself turning slightly and extending his hand to his friends.

Seizing the moment, the two others each quickly plucked a coin from his hand. Within an instant of realizing that they, too, were about to clench their fists around their newly acquired treasure, they slowly opened their fingers as well, looking up at the newly arrived pilgrim with a sense of bewilderment. They were bewildered not just that he had given them the coins, but that they were still standing there with their palms open, surprising even themselves that they were willing to follow this man’s peculiar advice.

The sight of it all made Nicholas burst out in a gracious laugh. He was delighted by their response and he quickly deposited two more of his smallest coins into each of their hands, now tripling their astonishment. It wasn’t the amount of the gifts that had astonished them, for they had seen bigger tips from wealthier pilgrims, but it was the generous and cheerful spirit that accompanied the gifts that gave them such a surprise.

The whole incident took place in less than a minute, but it set Nicholas and his new friends into such a state that each of them looked forward to the journey ahead.

“Now, you’d better close your hands again, because a wise man—or woman–“ he nodded to the little girl, “also takes care of that which they have been given so that it doesn’t get lost or stolen.”

Then, turning to walk toward the city, Nicholas said, “How about you let me get some rest tonight, and then, first thing in the morning, you can start showing me those holy places?”

While holy places abounded in this holy land, in the magical moments that had just transpired, it seemed to the three children—and even to Nicholas himself–that they had just stepped foot on their first.

CHAPTER 8

Nicholas woke with the sun the next morning. He had asked the children to meet him at the inn shortly after sunrise. His heart skipped a beat with excitement about the day ahead. Within a few minutes, he heard their knock–and their unmistakable giggles–at the door.

He found out that their names were Dimitri, Samuel and Ruthie. They were, to use the common term, “alumni,” children whose parents had left them at birth to fend for themselves. Orphans like these dotted the streets throughout the Roman Empire, byproducts of people who indulged their passions wherever and with whomever they wanted, with little thought for the outcome of their actions.

While Dimitri could have wallowed in self-pity for his situation, he didn’t. He realized early on that it didn’t help to get frustrated and angry about his circumstances. So he became an entrepreneur.

He began looking for ways he could help people do whatever they needed, especially those things which others couldn’t do, or wouldn’t do, for themselves. He wasn’t often rewarded for his efforts, but when he was, it was all worth it.

He wasn’t motivated by religion, for he wasn’t religious himself, and he wasn’t motivated by greed, for he never did anything that didn’t seem right if it were just for the money, as greedy people who only care about money often do. He simply believed that if he did something that other people valued, and if he did it good enough and long enough, then somehow he would make it in life. Some people, like Dimitri, stumble onto godly wisdom without even realizing it.

Samuel and Ruthie, on the other hand, were just along for the ride. Like bees drawn to honey, Samuel and Ruthie were drawn to Dimitri, as often happens when people find someone who is trying to do what’s right. Samuel was eight, and like Dimitri, wasn’t religious himself, but had chosen his own name when he heard someone tell the story of another little boy named Samuel who, when very young, had been given away by his parents to be raised by a priest. Samuel, the present-day one, loved to hear about all that the long-ago Samuel had done, even though the other one had lived over 1,000 years before. This new Samuel didn’t know if the stories about the old Samuel were true, but at the time he chose his name, he didn’t particularly care. It was only in the past few months, as he had been traveling to the holy sites with Dimitri, that he had begun to wonder if perhaps the stories really were true.

Now Ruthie, even though she was only seven, was as sharp as a tack. She always remembered people’s names and dates, what happened when and who did what to whom. Giggling was her trademark, but little though she was, her mind was eager to learn and she remembered everything she saw and everything she was taught. Questions filled her mind, and naturally spilled right out of her mouth.

Dimitri didn’t mind these little tag-alongs, for although it might have been easier for him to do what he did by himself, he also knew of the dangers of the streets and felt compelled to help these two like an older brother might help his younger siblings. And to be completely honest, he didn’t have anyone else to call family, so finding these two a few years earlier had filled a part of his heart in a way that he couldn’t describe, but somehow made him feel better.

Nicholas took in the sight of all three beaming faces at his door. “Where to first?” asked Dimitri.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” said Nicholas, “the place where Jesus was born.” And with that they began the three-day walk from the coast of Joppa to the hills of Bethlehem.

CHAPTER 9

After two days of walking and sleeping on hillsides, Nicholas and his new friends had just a half day left before they reached Bethlehem. For Nicholas, his excitement was building with every hill they passed, as he was getting closer and closer to the holy place he most wanted to see, the birthplace of Jesus.

“Why do you think He did it?” asked Dimitri. “I mean, why would Jesus want to come here—to earth? If I were already in heaven, I think I’d want to stay there.”

Even though Dimitri was supposed to be the guide, he didn’t mind asking as many questions as he could, especially when he was guiding someone like Nicholas, which didn’t happen very often.

Nicholas didn’t mind his asking, either, as Nicholas had done the same thing back home. His parents belonged to a community of believers that had been started about 250 years earlier by the Apostle Paul himself when Paul had visited their neighboring city of Myra on one of his missionary journeys, telling everyone who would listen about Jesus. Paul had lived at the same time as Jesus, although Paul didn’t become a believer himself until after Jesus died and rose again from the dead. Paul’s stories were always remarkable.

Nicholas got to hear all of the stories that Paul had told while he was in Myra, as they were written down and repeated by so many others over the years.

As a child, Nicholas thought that anything that happened 250 years ago sounded like ancient history. But as he started to get a little older, and now that his parents had passed away, too, it didn’t seem that long ago at all. The stories that Nicholas heard were the same stories his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather, back to six or seven generations, had heard, some for the very first time from the Apostle Paul in person. Nicholas loved to hear them over and over, and he asked many of the same questions that Dimitri was now asking him—like why would Jesus leave heaven to come down to earth in person.

“The simple answer is because He loved us,” said Nicholas. “But that alone probably doesn’t answer the question you’re really asking, because God has always loved us. The reason Jesus came to earth was, well, because there are some things that need to be done in person.”

Nicholas went on to explain the gospel–the good news–to the children of how Jesus came to pay the ultimate price with His life for anything we had ever done wrong, making a way for us to come back to God with a clean heart, plus live with Him in heaven forever.

Throughout the story, the children stared at Nicholas with rapt attention. Although they had been to Bethlehem many times before and had often taken people to the cave that was carved into the hillside where it was said that Jesus was born, they had never pictured it in their minds quite like this before. They had never understood the motivations behind why God did what He did. And they had never really considered that the stories they heard about Jesus being God in the flesh were true. How could He be?

Yet hearing Nicholas’ explanation made so much sense to them, that they wondered why they had never considered it as true before. In those moments, their hearts and minds were finally opened to at least the possibility that it was true. And that open door turned out to be the turning point for each of them in their lives, just as it had been for Nicholas when he first heard the Truth. God really did love them, and God had demonstrated that love for them by coming to the earth to save them from their certain self-destruction.

For Nicholas, when he first heard about the love of the Father for him, the idea was fairly familiar to him because he had already had a good glimpse of what the love of a father looked like from the love of his own father. But to Dimitri, Samuel and Ruthie, who had never had a father, much less one like Nicholas had just described, it was simultaneously one of the most distantly incomprehensible, yet wonderfully alluring descriptions of love they had ever heard.

As they made their way through the hills toward Bethlehem, they began to skip ahead as fast as their hearts were already skipping, knowing that they would soon see again the place where God had, as a Man, first touched earth less than 300 years earlier. They would soon be stepping onto ground that was indeed holy.

CHAPTER 10

It was evening when they finally arrived at their destination. Dimitri led them through the city of Bethlehem to the spot where generations of pilgrims had already come to see the place where Jesus was born: a small cave cut into the hillside where animals could easily have been corralled so they wouldn’t wander off.

There were no signs to mark the spot, no monuments or buildings to indicate that you were now standing on the very spot where the God of the universe had arrived as a child. It was still dangerous anywhere in the Roman Empire to tell others you were a Christian, even though the laws against it were only sporadically enforced.

But that didn’t stop those who truly followed Christ from continuing to honor the One whom they served as their King. Although Jesus taught that His followers were to still respect their earthly rulers, if forced to choose between worshipping Christ or worshipping Caesar, both the Christians and Caesar knew who the Christians would worship. So the standoff continued.

The only indication that this was indeed a holy site was the well-worn path up the hill that made its way into and out of the cave. Tens of thousands of pilgrims had already made their way to this spot during the past 250 years. It was well known to those who lived in Bethlehem, for it was the same spot that had been shown to pilgrims from one generation to the next, going back to the days of Christ.

As Dimitri led the three others along the path to the cave, Nicholas laughed, a bit to himself, and a bit out loud. The others turned to see what had made him burst out so suddenly. He had even surprised himself! Here he was at the one holy site he most wanted to see, and he was laughing.

Nicholas said, “I was just thinking of the wise men who came to Bethlehem to see Jesus. They probably came up this very hill. How regal they must have looked, riding on their camels and bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. For a moment I pictured myself as one of those kings, riding on a camel myself. Then I stepped in some sheep dung by the side of the road. The smell brought me back in an instant to the reality that I’m hardly royalty at all!”

“Yes,” said Ruthie, “but didn’t you tell us that the angels spoke to the shepherds first, and that they were the first ones to go and see the baby? So smelling a little like sheep dung may not make you like the kings, but it does make you like those who God brought to the manger first!”

“Well said, Ruthie,” said Nicholas. “You’re absolutely right.”

Ruthie smiled at her insight, and then her face produced another thoughtful look. “But maybe we should still bring a gift with us, like the wise men did?” The thought seemed to overtake her, as if she was truly concerned that they had nothing to give to the King. He wasn’t there anymore to receive their gifts, of course, but still she had been captivated by the stories about Jesus that Nicholas had been telling them along the road. She thought that she should at least bring Him some kind of gift.

“Look!” she said, pointing to a spot on the hill a short distance away. She left the path and within a few minutes had returned with four small, delicate golden flowers, one for each of them. “They look just like gold to me!”

She smiled from ear to ear now, giving each one of them a gift to bring to Jesus. Nicholas smiled as well. There’s always something you can give, he thought to himself. Whether it’s gold from a mine or gold from a flower, we only bring to God that which is already His anyway, don’t we? 

So with their gifts in hand, they reached the entrance to the cave—and stepped inside.

CHAPTER 11

Nothing could have prepared Nicholas for the strong emotion that overtook him as he entered the cave.

On the ground in front of him was a makeshift wooden manger, a feeding trough for animals probably very similar to the one in which Jesus had been laid the night of His birth. It had apparently been placed in the cave as a simple reminder of what had taken place there. But the effect on Nicholas was profound.

One moment he had been laughing at himself and watching Ruthie pick flowers on the hillside and the next moment, upon seeing the manger, he found himself on his knees, weeping uncontrollably at the thought of what had taken place on this very spot.

He thought about everything he had ever heard about Jesus—about how He had healed the sick, walked on water and raised the dead. He thought about the words Jesus had spoken—words that echoed with the weight of authority as He was the Author of life itself. He thought about his own parents who had put their lives on the line to serve this Man called Jesus, who had died for him just as He had died for them, giving up their very lives for those they loved.

The thoughts flooded his mind so fully that Nicholas couldn’t help sobbing with deep, heartfelt tears. They came from within his very soul. Somewhere else deep inside him, Nicholas felt stirred like he had never felt in his life. It was a sensation that called for some kind of response, some kind of action. It was a feeling so different from anything else he had ever experienced, yet it was unmistakably clear that there was a step he was now supposed to take, as if a door were opening before him and he knew he was supposed to walk through it. But how?

As if in answer to his question, Nicholas remembered the golden flower in his hand. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do, and he wanted more than anything to do it.

He took the flower and laid it gently on the ground in front of the wooden manger. The golden flower wasn’t just a flower anymore. It was a symbol of his very life, offered up now in service to his King.

Nicholas knelt there for several minutes, engulfed in this experience that he knew, even in the midst of it, would affect him for the rest of his life. He was oblivious to anything else that was going on around him. All he knew was that he wanted to serve this King, this Man who was clearly a man in every sense of the word, yet was clearly one and the same with God as well, the very essence of God Himself.

As if slowly waking from a dream, Nicholas began to become aware of his surroundings again. He noticed Dimitri and Samuel on his left and Ruthie on his right, also on their knees. Having watched Nicholas slip down to his knees, they had followed suit. Now they looked alternately, back and forth between him and the manger in front of him.

The waves of emotion that had washed over Nicholas were now washing over them as well. They couldn’t help but imagine what he was experiencing, knowing how devoted he was to Jesus and what it had willingly cost Nicholas’ parents to follow Him. Each of them, in their own way, began to experience for themselves what such love and devotion must feel like.

Having watched Nicholas place his flower in front of the manger, they found themselves wanting to do the same. If Jesus meant so much to Nicholas, then certainly they wanted to follow Jesus as well. They had never in their entire lives experienced the kind of love that Nicholas had shown them in the past three days. Yet somehow they knew that the love that Nicholas had for them didn’t originate with Nicholas alone, but from the God whom Nicholas served. If this was the kind of effect that Jesus had on His followers, then they wanted to follow Jesus, too.

Any doubts that Nicholas had had about his faith prior to that day were all washed away in those timeless moments. Nicholas had become, in the truest sense of the word, a Believer. 

And from those very first moments of putting his faith and trust fully in Jesus, he was already inspiring others to do the same.

To be continued…next week!

(Or if you can’t wait, here’s a link to keep reading the rest of the story online OR you can get the paperback or eBook as a gift for yourself or others in our online bookstore.)

Here are a few pictures of the Holy Land (taken by my daughter, Makari on a trip we took there a few years ago): a waterfall in the mountains of En Gedi where David fled from King Saul, an unmarked tomb by the side of a road, and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Jesus once walked, taught, and touched people’s lives 2,000 years ago.

And here’s a short video clip I took while visiting Bethlehem, showing the star on the ground which has been shown to believers since the days of St. Nicholas as the location of the stable where Jesus was born. A church was first built over this spot just a few dozen years after the real St. Nicholas visited there.

Click here to see inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

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ST. NICHOLAS: THE BELIEVER
A New Story for Christmas Based on the Old Story of St. Nicholas
Part 1 of 7 (Click here to listen)

by Eric & Lana Elder

 
Starting today and for the next 6 Sundays leading up to Christmas, I’ll be posting the entire book that my late wife Lana and I wrote about the real St. Nicholas who lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Nicholas had a strong faith in Christ, and I’d love to tell you about it! His story will encourage you to keep putting your faith in Christ for everything in your life.

New this year, I’ll also be posting a few songs that a friend and I have written for an upcoming ballet that is being staged this Christmas by 250 kids at a wonderful Christian Ballet company in South Carolina. The ballet is called “One Life,” a name taken from the tag line of the book that says: “Nicholas had just one life to live, but if he lived it right, one life was all he would need.”

If you live in the South Carolina area and want to see the show, you can get tickets here! I’ll be at the show November 30th and December 1st and would love to meet you! I’ll be posting some songs in the weeks ahead.

If you’re looking for a Sunday sermon, you can watch one live at 9 or 11 a.m. (CST) at live.eastview.church or recorded for playback later at the same link.

Without further adieu, I present to you, St. Nicholas: The Believer!

(Also available in paperback in English or Spanish as a Christmas gift for you or others!)

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my sweet wife, Lana, who inspired me and helped me to tell you this spectacular story.

Lana had just finished making her final edits and suggestions on this book the week before she passed from this life to the next, way too young at the age of 48.

It was her idea and her dream to share the story of St. Nicholas with as many people as possible. She wanted to inspire them to give their lives to others as Jesus had given His life for us. This book is the first step in making that dream a reality.

To the world Lana may have been just one person, but to me she was the world. This book is lovingly dedicated to her.

INTRODUCTION

by Eric Elder

There was a time when I almost gave up celebrating Christmas. Our kids were still young and weren’t yet hooked on the idea of Santa Claus and presents, Christmas trees and decorations.

I had read that the Puritans who first came to America were so zealous in their faith that they didn’t celebrate Christmas at all. Instead they charged fines to businesses in their community who failed to keep their shops open on Christmas day. They didn’t want anything to do with a holiday that was, they felt, rooted in paganism. As a new believer and a new father myself, the idea of going against the flow of the excesses of Christmas had its appeal, at least in some respects.

Then I read an article by a man who simply loved celebrating Christmas. He could think of no greater way to celebrate the birth of the most important figure in human history than throwing the grandest of parties for Him–gathering and feasting and sharing gifts with as many of his family and friends as possible. This man was a pastor of deep faith and great joy. For him, the joy of Christ’s birth was so wondrous that he reveled in every aspect of Christmas, including all the planning, decorating and activities that went along with it. He even loved bringing Santa Claus into the festivities, our modern-day version of the very real and very ancient Saint Nicholas, a man of deep faith and great joy as well who Himself worshipped and adored the Baby who was born in Bethlehem.

So why not celebrate the birth of Christ? Why not make it the biggest party of the year? Why not make it the “Hap-Happiest season of all”?

I was sold. Christmas could stay–and my kids would be much hap-happier for it, too.

I dove back into celebrating Christmas with full vigor, and at the same time took a closer look into the life of the real Saint Nicholas, a man who seemed almost irremovably intertwined with this Holy Day. I discovered that Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus were indeed one and the same, and that the Saint Nicholas who lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries after the birth of Christ was truly a devout follower of Christ himself.

As my wife and I read more and more about Nicholas’ fascinating story, we became enthralled with this believer who had already been capturing the hearts and imaginations of believers and nonbelievers alike throughout the centuries.

With so many books and movies that go to great lengths to tell you the “true” story of Santa Claus (and how his reindeer are really powered by everything from egg nog to Coca-Cola), I’ve found that there are very few stories that even come close to describing the actual person of who Saint Nicholas was, and in particular, what he thought about the Man for whom Christmas is named, Jesus Christ. I was surprised to learn that with all the historical documents that attest to Saint Nicholas’ faith in Christ, compelling tellings of those stories seem to have fallen by the wayside over the ages.

So with the encouragement and help of my sweet wife, Lana, we decided to bring the story of Saint Nicholas back to life for you, with a desire to help you recapture the essence of Christmas for yourself.

While some people, with good reason, may still go to great lengths to try to remove anything that might possibly hint of secularism from this holiest day of the year, it seems to me equally fitting to go to great lengths to try to restore Santa to his rightful place–not as the patron saint of shopping malls, but as a beacon of light that shines brightly on the One for whom this Holy Day is named.

It is with deep faith and great joy that I offer you this Christmas novella–a little story. I’ve enjoyed telling it and I hope you’ll enjoy hearing it. It just may be the most human telling of the story of Saint Nicholas you’ve ever heard.

Above all, I pray that God will use this story to rekindle your love, not only for this season of the year, but for the One who makes this season so bright.

May God bless you this Christmas and always!

In Christ’s love,
Eric Elder

P.S. I’ve divided this story into 7 parts and 40 chapters to make it easier to read. If you’d like, you can read one part a day as I send them out for the next 6 Sundays leading up to Christmas. Or if you’d like to use this book as a daily devotional, you can read a chapter a day for 40 days!

PART 1

PROLOGUE

My name is Dimitri–Dimitri Alexander. But that’s not important. What’s important is that man over there, lying on his bed. He’s–well, I suppose there’s really no better way to describe him except to say–he’s a saint. Not just because of all the good he’s done, but because he was–as a saint always is–a Believer. He believed that there was Someone in life who was greater than he was, Someone who guided him, who helped him through every one of his days.

If you were to look at him closely, lying there on his bed, it might look to you as if he was dead. And in some sense, I guess you would be right. But the truth is, he’s more alive now than he has ever been.

My friends and I have come here today to spend his last day on earth with him. Just a few minutes ago we watched as he passed from this life to the next.

I should be crying, I know. Believe me, I have been–and I will be again. But for now, I can’t help but simply be grateful that he has finally made it to his new home, a home that he has been dreaming about for many years. A home where he can finally talk to God face to face, like I’m talking to you right now.

Oh, he was a saint all right. But to me, and to so many others, he was something even more. He was–how could I put it? An inspiration. A friend. A teacher. A helper. A giver. Oh, he loved to give and give and give some more, until it seemed he had nothing left to give at all. But then he’d reach down deep and find a little more. “There’s always something you can give,” as he would often say.

He always hoped, in some small way, that he could use his life to make a difference in the world. He wanted, above all, to help people. But with so many needs all around, what could he possibly do?

He was like a man on a beach surrounded by starfish that had been washed up onto the shore. He knew that they would die if they didn’t make it back into the water.

Not knowing how to save them all, the man on the beach did what he could. He reached down, picked one up, and tossed it back into the water. Then reached down again, picked up another, and did the same.

Someone once asked the man why he bothered at all–that with so many needs all around, how could he possibly make any difference. He’d just toss another starfish into the water and say, “It made a difference to that one.” Then he’d reach down and pick up another.

You see, to the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.

In many ways, my friend was just like you and me. Each one of us has just one life to live. But if you live it right, one life is all you need. And if you live your life for God, well, you just might touch the whole world.

Did his life make any difference? I already know my answer, because I’m one of those that he reached down and picked up many, many years ago. But how about I tell you his story, and when I get to the end, I’ll let you decide if his life made a difference or not. And then maybe, by the time we’re finished, you’ll see that your life can make a difference, too.

Oh, by the way, I haven’t told you his name yet, this man who was such a great saint, such a great believer in the God who loved him, who created him, who sustained him and with whom he is now living forever.

His name is Nicholas–and this is his story.

CHAPTER 1

Nicholas lived in an ideal world. At least that’s the way he saw it. As a nine-year-old boy, growing up on the northern coast of what he called the Great Sea–you might call it the Mediterranean–Nicholas couldn’t imagine a better life.

He would often walk through the streets with his father, acting as if they were on their way to somewhere in particular. But the real reason for their outing was to look for someone who was struggling to make ends meet, someone who needed a lift in their life. A simple hello often turned into the discovery of a need to be met. Nicholas and his father would pray, and if they could meet the need, they found a way to do it.

Nicholas couldn’t count the number of times his dad would sneak up behind someone afterwards and put some apples in their sack, or a small coin or two. As far as Nicholas knew, no one ever knew what his father had done, except to say that sometimes they heard people talking about the miracle of receiving exactly what they needed at just the right time, in some unexpected way.

Nicholas loved these walks with his father, just as he loved his time at home with his mother. They had shown the same love and generosity with him as they had shown to so many others.

His parents had somehow found a way to prosper, even in the turbulent times in which they lived. They were, in fact, quite wealthy. But whether their family was rich or poor seemed to make no difference to Nicholas. All he knew or cared about was that his parents loved him like no one else on earth. He was their only son, and their times together were simple and truly joyful.

Their richest times came at night, as they shared stories with each other that they had heard about a Man who was like no other Man they had ever known. A Man who lived on the other side of the Great Sea about 280 years earlier. His name was Jesus. Nicholas was enthralled with the stories of this Man who seemed to be so precious in the eyes of his parents. Jesus seemed both down-to-earth and larger-than-life, all at the same time. How could anyone be so humble, yet so noble? How could He be so poor that He was born in an animal stable, yet so generous that He could feed 5,000 people? How could He live His life so fully, yet die a death so cruelly? Jesus was, to Nicholas, an enigma, the most fascinating person about whom he’d ever heard. One day, Nicholas thought to himself, he hoped to visit this land on the other side of the sea–and walk where Jesus walked.

For all the love that Nicholas and his parents shared and which held them together, there was one thing that threatened to pull them apart. It was the one thing that seemed to be threatening many families in their country these days, irrespective of their wealth or poverty, their faith or lack of faith, their love for others or their lack of love.

Nicholas’ friends and neighbors called it the plague. His parents had mentioned it from time to time, but only in their prayers. They prayed for the families who were affected by the plague, asking God for healing when possible, and for strength of faith when not. Most of all, his parents prayed for Nicholas that regardless of what happened around him, he would always know how very much they loved him, and how very much God loved him.

Even though Nicholas was so young, he had seen enough of life to know that real threats existed in the world. Yet he also had been shielded from those threats, in a way, by the love of his parents and by their devout faith in God. As his father had learned over the years, and had many times reminded Nicholas, “In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.” And Nicholas believed him. Up to this point, he’d had no real reason to doubt the words his father had spoken.

But it would be only a matter of months before Nicholas’ faith would be challenged and he would have to decide if he really believed those words for himself—that in all things, God would truly work for the good of those who loved Him.

Tonight, however, he simply trusted the words of his father, listening to his parents’ prayers for him–and for those in his city–as he drifted off into a perfect sleep.

CHAPTER 2

Nicholas woke to the sounds of birds out his window. The air was fresh, washed clean by the seaside mist in the early morning.

But the news this morning was less than idyllic. A friend of Nicholas’ family had contracted the sickness that they had only heard about from people in other cities. The boy was said to be near the point of death.

Nicholas’ father had heard the news first and had gone to pray for the boy. Returning home just as Nicholas awoke, his father shared the news with his wife and with Nicholas.

“We need to pray,” he said, with no hint of panic in his voice, but with an unmistakable urgency that caused all three of them to slip down to their knees.

Nicholas’ father began the prayer: “Father, You know the plans You have for this child. We trust You to carry them out. We pray for Your healing as we love this boy, but we know that You love him even more than we do. We trust that as we place him in Your hands this morning, You will work all things together for good, as You always do for those who love You.”

It was a prayer Nicholas had heard his father pray many times before, asking for what they believed was best in every situation, but trusting that God knew best in the end. It was the same type of prayer Nicholas had heard that Jesus had prayed the night before He died: “If You are willing,” Jesus prayed, “take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

Nicholas never quite knew what to make of this prayer. Wouldn’t God always want what’s best for us? And how could someone’s death ever be a good thing? Yet his father prayed that prayer so often, and with such sincerity of heart, that Nicholas was confident that it was the right thing to pray. But how God could answer any other way than healing the boy–and still work it out for good–remained a mystery.

After Nicholas’ mother had added her own words to the prayer, and Nicholas himself had joined in, his father concluded with thanks to God for listening–and for already answering their prayers.

As they stood, the news came to their door, as if in direct answer to what they had just prayed. But it wasn’t the answer they were hoping for. The boy had died.

Nicholas’ mother began to weep quietly, but not holding back on her tears. She wept as she felt the loss of another mother, feeling the loss as if it were her own son who had died.

Nicholas’ father took hold of her hand and pulled Nicholas close, saying a quiet prayer for the family of the boy who had died, and adding another prayer for his own family. He gave his wife and son one more final squeeze, then walked out the door to return to the other boy’s home.

CHAPTER 3

The boy’s death had a sobering effect on the whole city. The people had known the boy, of course, and were sad for the family.

But his death was more sobering because it wasn’t an isolated event. The people had heard stories of how the sickness had been spreading through the cities around them, taking the lives of not just one or two people here and there, but entire families—entire neighborhoods. The death of this boy seemed to indicate that the plague had now arrived in their city, too.

No one knew how to stop it. All they could do was pray. And pray they did.

As the sickness began to spread, Nicholas’ parents would visit the homes of those who lay dying. While his parents’ money was powerless to offer relief to the families, their prayers brought a peace that no amount of money could buy.

As always, Nicholas’ father would pray that death would pass them over, as it had passed over the Israelites in Egypt when the plague of death overtook the lives of the firstborn of every family that wasn’t willing to honor God. But this sickness was different. It made no distinction between believer or unbeliever, firstborn or last born, or any other apparent factor. This sickness seemed to know no bounds, and seemed unstoppable by any means.

Yet Nicholas watched as his father prayed in faith nonetheless, believing that God could stop the plague at any moment, at any household, and trusting God to work it all out for good, even if their lives, too, were seemingly cut short.

These latter prayers were what people clung to the most. More than anything else, these words gave them hope–hope that their lives were not lived in vain, hope that their deaths were not going unnoticed by the God who created them.

A visit by Nicholas’ father and mother spoke volumes to those who were facing unbearable pain, for as the plague spread, fewer and fewer people had been willing to leave their own homes, let alone visit the homes where the sickness had struck. The prayers of Nicholas’ father, and the tears of his mother, gave the families the strength they needed to face whatever came their way.

Nicholas watched in wonder as his parents dispensed their gifts of mercy during the day, then returned home each night physically spent, but spiritually strengthened. It made him wonder how they got their strength for each day. But it also made him wonder how long their own family could remain untouched by this plague.

When Nicholas finally found the courage to voice this question out loud, a question that seemed to be close to all of their hearts, his father simply answered that they had only two choices: to live in fear, or to live in love, and to follow the example of the One in whom they had entrusted their lives. They chose to live in love, doing for others what they would want others to do for them.

So every morning Nicholas’ father and mother would wake up and pray, asking their Lord what He would have them do. Then, pushing aside any fears they might have had, they put their trust in God, spending the day serving others as if they were serving Christ Himself.

While his father’s response didn’t answer the immediate question on Nicholas’ heart– which was how much longer it might be till the sickness visited their own home–it seemed to answer a question that went much deeper. It answered the question of whether or not God was aware of all that was going on, and if He was, whether or not He cared enough to do anything about it.

By the way that God seemed to be directing his parents each day, Nicholas gained a peace of mind that God was indeed fully aware of all that was going on in the lives of every person in his city of Patara—and that God did indeed care. God cared enough to send Nicholas’ parents to those who needed to hear a word from Him, who needed a touch from His hands, who needed a touch from God not just in their flesh, but in their spirits as well.

It seemed to Nicholas to be a more glorious answer to his question than he could have imagined. His worry about when the sickness might visit their own home dissipated as he went to sleep that night. Instead, he prayed that God would use his own hands and words–Nicholas’ hands and words–as if they were God’s very own, reaching out to express God’s love for His people.

CHAPTER 4

In the coming days, Nicholas found himself wanting to help his father and mother more and more as they delivered God’s mercy to those around them.

They worked together to bring food, comfort and love to each family touched by the plague. Some days it was as simple as stopping by to let a mother know she wasn’t alone. Others days it was bringing food or drink to an entire family who had taken ill. And still other days it was preparing a place in the hills around their city where they carefully laid the bodies of those who had succumbed to the sickness and whose spirits had passed from this life to the next.

Each day Nicholas’ heart grew more and more aware of the temporal nature of life on earth, and more and more in tune with the eternal nature of the life that is unseen. It seemed to Nicholas that the line between the two worlds was becoming less and less distinct. What he had once thought of as solid and real—like rocks and trees, or hands and feet—soon took on a more ethereal nature. And those things that were more difficult for him to touch before—like faith and hope, love and peace—began to become more solid and real.

It was as if his world was turning both upside down and inside out at the same time, not with a gut-wrenching twisting, but as if his eyes themselves were being re-calibrated, adjusting better to see with more clarity what was really going on—focusing more acutely on what really mattered in life. Even surrounded by so much sickness and death, Nicholas felt himself coming alive more fully than he’d ever felt before.

His father tried to describe what Nicholas was feeling by using words that he’d heard Jesus had said, that whoever tried to hold onto this life too tightly would lose it, but whoever was willing to let go of this life, would find true life. By learning how to love others without being constrained by fear, being propelled forward by love instead, Nicholas was starting to experience how it felt to truly live.

Whether that feeling could sustain him through what lay ahead, he didn’t know. But what he did know was that for now, more than anything else, he wanted to live each day to the fullest. He wanted to wake up each day looking for how God could use him, then do whatever God was willing to give him to do. To do anything less would be to shortchange himself from living the life God had given him to live—and to shortchange God from the work God wanted to get done.

As the days passed, Nicholas came to know what his father and mother already knew: that no one knew how many more days they had left in this world. His family no longer saw themselves as human beings having a temporary spiritual experience, but as spiritual beings, having a temporary human experience. With eyes of faith, they were able to look into whatever lay ahead of them without the fear that gripped so many of the others around them.

CHAPTER 5

When Nicholas awoke one day to the sound of his mother coughing, time seemed to stand still.

For all the preparation his parents—and his own faith—had given him, it still caught him off guard to think that the sickness might have finally crossed over the threshold of their own home.

He thought that maybe God would spare them for all the kindness they had shown to others during the previous few months. But his father had cautioned him against such thinking, reminding him that for all the good that Jesus had done in His life—for all the healing that He had brought to others—there still came a time when He, too, had to face suffering and death. It didn’t mean that God didn’t love Jesus, or wasn’t concerned for Him, or hadn’t seen all the good He had done in His life. And it didn’t mean that Jesus remained indifferent to what was about to take place either. Jesus even told His disciples that His heart was deeply troubled by what He was about to go through, but that didn’t mean He shrank back from what lay ahead of Him. No, He said, it was for this very hour that He had come. Greater love, He told His disciples, had no one than this: that they lay down their lives for their friends.

Nicholas’ mother coughed again, and time slowly began to move again for Nicholas. He stood to his feet. As he approached his mother, she hesitated for a moment. It was as if she was torn between wanting him to stand still—not to come one step closer to the sickness that had now reached her body—or to get up on her feet, too, and throw her arms around him, assuring him that everything would be all right. But a moment later, Nicholas had made her decision unnecessary, for he was already in her arms, holding on as tight as he could as they both broke down in tears. As Nicholas was learning, having faith doesn’t mean you can’t cry. It just means that you can trust God, even with your tears.

Nicholas’ father had already shed some of his own tears that morning. He had gone outside before the sunrise, this time not to visit the homes of others, but to pray. For him, the place where he always returned when he needed to be alone with God was to the fresh air by the sea, not far from their home. While he knew he could pray anywhere, at any time, it was by the sea that he felt closest to God. The sound of the waves, rhythmically washing up on the shore, seemed to have a calming, mesmerizing effect on him.

He had arrived in time to watch the sunrise off to his left, looking down the shoreline of the Great Sea. How many sunrises had he seen from that very spot? And how many more would he have left to see? He turned his head and coughed, letting the question roll back out to sea with the next receding wave. The sickness had come upon him as well.

This wasn’t the first time he had asked himself how many days he had left to live. The difference this time was that in the past, he had always asked it hypothetically. He would come to this spot whenever he had an important decision to make, a decision that required he think beyond the short term. He would come here when he needed to look into eternity, taking into account the brevity of life. Here, at the edge of the sea, it was as if he could grasp both the brevity of life and the eternity of heaven at the same time.

The daily rising of the sun and the swelling, cresting and breaking of the waves on the shore reminded him that God was still in control, that His world would carry on—with or without him—just as it had since God had first spoken the water and earth into existence, and just as it would until the day God would choose for its end, to make way for the new heaven and the new earth. In light of eternity, the lifespan of the earth seemed incredibly short, and the lifespan of man even shorter still. In that short span of life, he knew that he had to make the most of each day, not just living for himself, and not even just living for others, but ultimately living for the God who had given him life. If God, the Creator of all things, had seen fit to breathe into him the breath of life, then as long as he could still take a breath, he wanted to make the most of it.

Coughing again, Nicholas’ father remembered that this was no mere intellectual exercise to help him come to grips with a difficult decision. This time–as he looked out at the sunrise once more, and at one more wave rolling in—he realized that this was the final test of everything that he had believed up until this point.

Some of life’s tests he had passed with flying colors. Others he had failed when fear or doubt had taken over. But this was a test he knew he wanted to pass more than any other.

He closed his eyes and asked for strength for another day. He let the sun warm his face, and he gently opened the palms of his hands to feel the breeze as it lifted up along the shore and floated over his body. He opened his eyes and looked one more time at the sea.

Then he turned and walked toward home, where he would soon join his precious wife and his beloved son in a long, tearful embrace.

To be continued…next week!

(Or if you can’t wait, here’s a link to keep reading the rest of the story online or you can get the paperback or eBook, in English or in Spanish, as a gift for yourself or others.)

The photos below (taken by my daughter, Makari) feature the ancient Roman theater, the main street and the parliament building in Patara, Turkey, the birthplace of St. Nicholas.

Click here to see a 2-minute video of the Patara Theater in Turkey.

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BE READY- PERSEVERE

By Norm Story

Psalm 78:1-7 Matthew 25:1-13

The challenge of faithfully living prepared and ready…

When I was a Boy Scout, I remember how the younger scouts
struggled and suffered on long hiking-camping trips; because they always seemed to bring so much of the wrong stuff.

They’d come loaded down with unnecessary equipment & supplies,
and yet often, they would not have brought along the more useful & important things they actually needed.

With more experience and by listening to the advice of others,
you learned which items were better left back at home, and which ones were actually useful and needed, which supplies & equipment were worth the cost – the weight of carrying them on your back.

The result was that the more experienced scouts were generally
much better prepared and fared better in any situation.

They were better prepared for whatever might happen; and so they were more able to relax and enjoy their camping experience out in nature.

It was really a matter of learning how to prepare for the unexpected.

A most formative time in my spiritual journey was during, “The Jesus Revolution” of the early 70’s.  That was a pretty heady time to be a young Christian.  There were lots of Bible Clubs and Bible Studies
that sprung up in school and in the community.  There were alternative worship services and events, quite different than mainline Presbyterianism.

In the excitement and religious fervor of the time, it was difficult to know what to do – what was true; whose theology & teaching was really God’s truth?

Which way of worship and which music did God most favor?

There was an amazing variety of answers to religious questions

Caught in the swirl of conflicting ideas and voices, each authoritatively claiming to be God’s truth, It was confusing to decide between religious ideas.

Back then, as a young Christian, it was almost impossible to discern the truth —so many voices making so many claims in absolute certainty each declaring that they alone rightly read the Bible and that their ways alone matched God ways, and were closest to the New Testament church.

So how could I possibly know who was right, way back then?  Today its much easier, more obvious to discern who was right back then.

Those who truly followed God, are still in the faith; while that which was false, that not of God, has withered and waned, it is no more —-those folks have not weathered the years.

The passing of time has disproved their false claims.  Some who I knew back then have grown in their faith, their walk with God has matured, broadened and deepened.

Others have strayed over time, some have abandoned their faith
Some of the loudest outspoken and most adamantly certain, did not hold to Christ, have not served God over the years.

When things got difficult or demanding, they left.  So the passage of time and events have revealed, who was truly speaking God’s truth, and who was not.

That is the same principle of spiritual & prophetic discernment That God told Moses to teach the people of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22

You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken.  The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

The immediate appearances may well obfuscate and deceive, but in the long run, time will surely tell — the ones who persevere on the long journey, have truth, and the ones who do not, but falter & fail, are false.

Most anyone can make a good impression at first, for a season —-and on the surface, its easy enough to seem faithful, but its on the long journey that faith gets tested —-can it withstand hard times and harsh struggles?  Can it emerge from questions and doubts still intact?… or is it only an easy fair weather faith?  Is it prepared to withstand storm and tribulation?

The test of a genuine Christian faith is just that simple,and that is the point and that is the message of the parable Jesus tells.

The context is a Middle Eastern village wedding celebration, which was culturally somewhat different back then.

In our culture, the wedding is mostly the bride’s special day, but in that patriarchal society, the focus was on the groom.

The bride and her attendant bridesmaids would wait all together while the groom and his party negotiated the ’bride’s price’ with her family.  A sign of the families love for their daughter, was to be difficult and draw out the negotiations, to show their reluctance at losing their daughter.

You’d have to have haggled & bargained in a Middle Eastern market to appreciate how much they enjoy the verbal exchange — the give and take is an important part of their culture;– its not really about the money or the cost of the item, but its establishing a relationship and respect; which is why even today it is a great insult when a tourist accepts the first price offered.

So having appropriately discussed at length the ’brides price. and once an agreed upon figure has been carefully negotiated, its now late into the night when the groom and his party would go and bring the bride and her attendants to the great wedding feast and celebration.

This was before the age of fireworks and neon lights, so the bridesmaids would provide lamps and torches; their job was to illuminate the way, their light creating a bright festive atmosphere.

Part of the fun and delight was to catch them napping, not ready; to show up unexpectedly, surprise and catch them off guard.

So Jesus frames his parable within that particular cultural context.

Matthew 25:1-4

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.

Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

To all outward appearances, there is no perceptible difference, between the wise and the foolish bridesmaids —they are all dressed in the same long gowns, their hair done up, each looking their best, with their lamps ready to celebrate.

If you just look around at them, you can’t tell which ones are the foolish, or which ones are the wise.  Only by the passing of time, only the long delays will tell, who is prepared and ready for the unexpected, and who not.

The groom and his party are delayed, they show up very late, and the catch the girls napping — they are surprised, and then there is a mad scramble for the procession to begin.

Now the bridesmaids have just one responsibility, to provide a bright light ready for when the groom arrives.

The five wise bridesmaids fill-up their lamps with spare oil, but the five foolish have not planned ahead and prepared.

They have no oil for their now depleted empty lamps, and with no oil, there is no light, so they cannot fulfill their one critical responsibility, so they aren’t ready to take part in the procession.

As soon as the groom and his party arrive the celebration begins.

Then there is no more time for preparations & getting ready.

The foolish are not prepared or ready to do what is expected of them, they cannot provide light to honor the procession; which within that peasant village cultural context, would be a major insult against the bride & groom.

It would be unheard of doing such a rude thing, like inviting someone to dine at a restaurant, and then not having any money to pay for the meal.

Well, it is futile at that late hour to go out looking for oil.

It is futile to try and prepare once its already too late, so they are not welcome or permitted to share the joy of the wedding celebration.

The wedding procession and celebration will go on without them

The parable is really that simple and straight forward, the challenge is understanding how it applies to our lives.

The first application has to do with the second coming of Christ; that despite the delay of over 20 centuries, his call is still to be ready, to be found alert & waiting.

Hebrews 9:27-28

And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Whether its our own death or the second coming of Jesus, at some point the Bridegroom will come for us, and our call is to be found ready and waiting.

Being ready is not a life spent figuring out when and how, its not a passive life spent watching the skies, and its not being sequestered away from the world – or standing on mountaintop singing hymns, checking our watches.

A lot of Bible interpreters seem to focus on the judgment aspect, be ready or else —with the threat of accountability – answering for our sins, they teach fear and terror at the Lord’s coming.

Jesus told this parable just days before his arrest, it was meant to reassure his frightened disciples, to give them courage and hope in facing the future.

The setting is the joy of a wedding celebration – not a funeral.

For Christians, the coming of Jesus is good news, not bad.

If we believe, if we know and walk with Jesus now, then it describes the joyful coming of a close friend.

It’s the happy excitement of a festive celebration, which is hardly reason or cause for fear & dread.

To those who already know the Bridegroom, this marks the fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desire and delight.

Yet at the same time, clearly there is a challenge to this text; will we have oil for our lamps when the Bridegroom comes for us?

The oil for our lamps is our relationship with God through Jesus; it is having submitted to the Lordship of Christ, it is accepting His love and grace to transform our lives.

BUT far more than just responding to an alter call one time, it is living out an on-going and growing walk with God it is living out his teachings – reflecting his light, and dwelling purposefully in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit

It is taking God and God’s Word seriously, living a life that honors God and imitates Christ, seeking to grow deeper & more faithful in our walk

Among international students studying in our universities, if a fellow foreign student becomes lax or grows complacent, if they stop making an all out effort and really trying, if they forget the sacrifice necessary to be there, they will be accused of, ’going American’.

International students have noticed that some American students coming from our culture of free entitlements & easy opportunity seem to always demand more and more, better and faster.

They expect life to be easy without any great effort. They show little gratitude for all they have. and are largely unwilling to give or contribute back.

It’s a harsh evaluation of our culture that may reveal some difficult truth.

And sometimes Christians, ’go American’, in the Church; becoming lax and worldly, ungrateful and spiritually lazy, undisciplined and complacent in our faith.

Forgetting the high cost of God’s love poured out at Calvary, we figure God owes us God ought to be grateful just because we show up.

In unrestrained arrogance, inflated ego and pride, we expect God to make our lives easy and pleasant, for God to quickly provide exactly what we want, for God to always respond to our every little whim; even though we refuse to submit to his rule and authority, though we continue to insist on having it our own way.

The mainline American church is plagued by such passive Christians who will commit to only enough religion and faith, as to inoculate ourselves … from God’s Spirit & Truth actually directing our lives.

We figure God owes us, just for showing up at all.  We want to control & limit God’s impact & rule in our lives  We want a type of religion that doesn’t cost us very much.

The parable is a stark reminder to those who’ve grown lax, to church insiders and members gone lazy and inert, who choose to ignore and refuse God’s ongoing call, who are content to go no further than yesterdays faith.

The parable is meant to grab our attention and shake awake those who don’t take God’s truth seriously.  There is a lot more to the Christian life than just showing up.  There’s a lot more than just smiles and warm fuzzy feelings.  It requires more than just being a member and then watching others support & serve the church.

It means to live out our lives to their richest & fullest, to fully commit our ways to serving our Lord.  It means giving God more than just the leavings of our lives, but making God’s presence in our lives our priority.

It means first seeking and obeying the will of God, and not just showing up occasionally after we’re through doing whatever else we want to do.

The call is to be ready and prepared with oil for our lamps, and that oil is our deepening relationship growing in Christ.  The oil is our lives lived usefully and faithfully, as we have been called and equipped for God’s service.

Our call is to wait and be ready, prepared no matter what the future holds for us.  It means to grow deeper, more faithful with the Lord.  Its easy enough to look good on surface – have a godly appearance, but has God’s truth permeated deep into our hearts and souls?

Its easy enough to be appear godly and holy for a short season, but will our faith last over time and adversity?  The truth will be revealed by how we run life’s long race hour by hour, day by day, all the way to the end.

To quote Starbucks coffee:

“Life is short —- stay awake”

To quote Jesus Christ: Luke 12:35-38

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.  Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”

If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

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FACING THE FUTURE

By Troy Borst

Joshua 1:1-9

In the first chapter of Joshua, we begin reading about a crisis that has erupted in the lives of the people of Israel. Their longtime leader and spiritual guide, Moses, has died. We need to understand that this time was very much a crisis for these people. This was the man who had led them from slavery in Egypt! This was the man who brought them the laws of God! And now he is gone.

In the first chapter of this book, we not only find crisis, but we find the Lord speaking to the new leader of the people. We find God meeting this man and encouraging him. We find God meeting this man and challenging him about the future.

1. THE PURPOSE OF GOD (v. 2)

Joshua was about to become very aware of God’s purpose and direction in his life. Moses was dead and Joshua had been his assistant. There was no contract that Joshua would become the leader. There was no line of succession. What I mean to say is that Joshua becoming the leader was not a “given”, but was open. This new leader would be in charge of leading the people to the Promised Land… no small task.

I think the leadership of Israel was in doubt until that moment when “God spoke to Joshua.” God was now hand-choosing the next leader of His people. It was God who would be directing their paths through the Promised Land. God chose Joshua to be that leader who would bring about the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.

God’s directions and purposes are clear: 1) The people of Israel are going across the Jordan River into Canaan and will take possession of it. 2) Joshua son of Nun will be their leader in all of this.

II. THE PROMISE OF GOD (v. 3)

Joshua and the people of Israel trusted in the Lord their God. They put all their faith and trust in Him to guide them and lead them into Canaan. And what of Joshua? He had to believe that God keeps His Word. Joshua had been a faithful believer throughout his life. In fact, when Israel spied out Canaan 40 years before, only he and Caleb put their faith in God and believed that they could conquer the land. Joshua knew that God always fulfills His promises. Joshua knew that God had promised Abraham that he would become a mighty nation and that his people would inhabit the land of Canaan. And now, Joshua and the people stood on the bank of the Jordan ready to go in and possess the land. God’s promises were coming true.

We as Christians also have the benefit of knowing that God keeps His promises. We have the entire Bible to read and discover all the promises that have been fulfilled. We also have Christ, in who so many of God’s promises are fulfilled. 2 Corinthians 1:20 explains to us that all the promises of God are fulfilled in Jesus and He is the One we have been looking for. In Him we find the “Yes” answer to our questions.

Was Jesus the Son of God?

Was He the Promised One who would take away the sins of the world?

Is He our every present help in times of need?

Does He provide direction for us in our lives?

As God was speaking with Joshua, He promised Joshua something very important. It occurs in verse 3. Joshua was assured victory in all of his endeavors. In taking hold of these promises, Joshua would be given all the places that his foot trod. He was given the victory before he even started.

III. THE POWER OF GOD (v. 5)

I believe that Joshua was a man of faith. He believed God and all that He was saying and promising. Because of this, God’s power was available for Joshua. God tells Joshua in verse 5 that no one will be able to stand against him all the days of his life… now that is power. We will see that power working in Joshua’s life shortly when he faces off against Jericho.

The people of Israel don’t stand a chance of toppling this mighty fortress of a city. Yet they do.

Joshua may feel that he doesn’t have the skills to lead Israel. Yet he does.

Retold from “The Book of Virtues” Editor: William J. Bennett

There is a story that centers on a king and the members of his court who were continually full of flattery. “You are the greatest man that ever lived…You are the most powerful king of all…Your highness, there is nothing you cannot do, nothing in this world dares disobey you.”

The king was a wise man and he grew tired such foolish speeches. One day as he was walking by the seashore he decided to teach them a lesson. “So you say I am the greatest man in the world?” he asked them. “O king,” they cried, “there never has been anyone as mighty as you, and there never be anyone so great, ever again!”

“And you say all things obey me?” he asked.

“Yes sire” they said. “The world bows before you, and gives you honor.”

“I see,” the king answered. “In that case, bring me my chair, and place it down by the water.” The servants scrambled to carry the royal chair over the sands. At his direction they placed it right at the water’s edge. The King sat down and looked out at the ocean. “I notice the tide is coming in. Do you think it will stop if I give the command?”

“Give the order, O great king, and it will obey,” cried his entourage.

“Sea,” cried the king, “I command you to come no further! Do not dare touch my feet!”

He waited a moment, and a wave rushed up the sand and lapped at his feet. “How dare you!” he shouted. “Ocean, turn back now! I have ordered you to retreat before me, and now you must obey! Go back!” In came another wave lapping at the king’s feet. The king remained on his throne throughout the day, screaming at the waves to stop. Yet in they came anyway, until the seat of the throne was covered with water.

Finally the king turned to his servants and said, “It seems I do not have quite so much power as you would have me believe. Perhaps now you will remember there is only one King who is all-powerful, and it is He who rules the sea, and holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand. I suggest you reserve your praises for him.”

The power of God, that same power that holds the earth together and calms the seas, is available to you in your own personal life. All that is required to access this awesome power is faith.

IV. THE PRESENCE OF GOD (v. 9)

Verse 9 would have been a great comfort to Joshua and the people. God told Joshua that He would be with them wherever they went. Joshua had the very presence of God as he marched through the Promised Land. We, as Christians, have that very same presence with us today. We have the presence of God in our lives given to us by Christ and described to us in the Word of God.

THE PRESENCE OF HIS LOVE

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the driver and, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat he’d told her was empty. Then she settled in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.

It had been a year since Susan, thirty-four, became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. Once a fiercely independent woman, Susan now felt condemned by this terrible twist of fate to become a powerless, helpless burden on everyone around her.

“How could this have happened to me?” she would plead, her heart knotted with anger. But no matter how much she cried or ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth her sight was never going to return. And all she had to cling to was her husband Mark.

Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all of his heart. Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city. At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark’s need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however, Mark realized that this arrangement wasn’t working – it was hectic, and costly.

Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to himself. Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. “I’m blind!” she responded bitterly. “How am I supposed to know where I’m going? I feel like you’re abandoning me.” Mark’s heart broke to hear these words, but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each morning and evening he would ride the bus with her, for as long as it took, until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened.

For two solid weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses, specifically her hearing, to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment. He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. He made her laugh, even on those not-so-good days when she would trip exiting the bus, or drop her briefcase.

Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband, and her best friend. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday… Each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better. She was doing it! She was going to work all by herself! On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying for her fare to exit the bus, the driver said, “Boy, I sure envy you.” Susan wasn’t sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year? Curious, she asked the driver, “Why do you say that you envy me?”

The driver responded, “It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are.” Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, and asked again, “What do you mean?” The driver answered, “You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky lady.”

God watches over us in just the same way. We may not know He is present. We may not be able to see His face, but He is there nonetheless! Be blessed in this thought: “God Loves You – even when you are not looking.”

People of faith can face the uncertain future with certainty. We can face each day as Joshua did, with God’s purpose, promise, power, and presence.

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GUIDANCE

By Warren Bird

How does God guide us in the decisions we have to make? This sermon provides an outline of a Biblical model of guidance, using Colossians 3.

I don’t suppose many of you are old enough to remember the original TV Quiz Show, “Pick-a-Box”. It was hugely successful back in the very early days of television in Australia in the 1950’s and 60’s – so, yes, all the episodes were in black and white.

The big moments in “Pick-a-Box” came when the contestant who had got the questions right had to pick from several boxes on a wall and there would be either a terrific prize or some useless dud object in the box. It was a moment of great drama for many Australians at the time – what would the contestant decide? I guess more recently we have had the nightly decision by the winner of “Sale of the Century” about whether to take the prize they’d already won or come back the next night to try for a bigger one.

Decisions, decisions – life is full of the need to make decisions. Make the right decision – pick the right box – and you will end up a lot better off than if you make the wrong decision.

In “Pick-a-Box” the outcome was random. Despite being smart enough to know the answers and get to the point of making the decision, in the end the contestant just didn’t have enough information to be able to tell which was the best choice of box.

Sometimes we get choices like that in life and a lot of the things that happen to us in life do seem somewhat random. But most of the time we do have information to help us make our decisions – maybe not enough information to guarantee the outcome, but enough to help us to make a choice from among alternatives. It is then up to us to use the information we have and any other resources that might be able to help along the way, to make the best decisions.

• Some decisions are quite trivial – will I have a Magnum Classic or a Magnum Ego? Will I choose Optus or Telstra as my internet provider?

• Some are moderately important – will I give up eating ice cream like Magnums so that I don’t get overweight? Will I go out and play sport or spend my time on the internet?

• And some decisions are crucial for our life’s direction – will I get married? What career will I aim for? Will I obey the road rules when I am driving my car?

Phew, some big issues there! Because they can be quite daunting choices to make, some people seem to think that they can avoid making decisions and just drift along with life. What did those critters in “The Lion King” call it – akuna matata? Friends, that sort of attitude IS making a decision – it’s a decision to be unthinking about what you do in life, a decision to give in to the forces that are at work in the world for good or evil and let them rule over you. From my experience, far from meaning “no worries for the rest of your days”, akuna matata means nothing but trouble as those forces sweep over us and get us into an awful mess sometimes.

As Christians we have accepted that making our own decisions our own way, ignoring God in our lives, is not the way we want to live; we have turned to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, accepting Him because He has accepted us, has taken us into His friendship, into His family; and as a result we have decided to follow Him.

This means that when we are faced with a decision we will want to make the right decision, the best decision, the decision that is consistent with us being followers of Jesus Christ.

The question before us tonight is, therefore, how do we know whether we are making the best decisions? How do we find and follow God’s guidance in our lives? We want to obey God’s will, but how do we know what His will for us actually is? Like the writer of the psalm that we read together, we call out to God:

“Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths;

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and Saviour and my hope is in you all day long.” (Ps 25:4-5)

God Promises to Guide Us

The prayer of the psalmist is not a forlorn one, because God does promise to guide us. Later in psalm 25 we read that:

“Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinner in His ways; He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.” (Ps 25:8-9)

Other verses that similarly promise God’s guidance are:

Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you always.”

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

These and many other passages in scripture make it clear that God wants to help us to live the lives He asks of us. He hasn’t called us into a relationship with Himself only to leave us in the dark about how that relationship should unfold. In the verse from Isaiah that I just quoted he uses interesting imagery to make this point clear. He describes life without God as being like living in a desert, in a “sun-scorched land”, but says that God’s guidance of His people means that they “will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

Be in no doubt that God wants what is best for His followers and that He promises to guide us.

How Does God Guide Us?

OK, you accept that God has made this promise, but the question then becomes, “how?” How does God guide us? When we acknowledge Him, as the verse in Proverbs says, how will he then direct our paths? When we ask for wisdom, as James instructed, how will He give it to us?

Over the years many Christians have given lots of different answers to this question. You will hear sermons on guidance that talk about doors that are opened and closed for you; about things that you can do to test out the different options from which you are to choose; about the importance of the counsel of Christian friends and elders; or about the place of your own feelings of “peace” about a decision.

In some of those things there can be helpful stuff and in relation to some decisions that we face in life those sort of “signals” will have a part to play. If I fail maths and the Universities Admission Board won’t let me into an engineering degree course then that is probably a clear signal that I should pursue something other than a career in engineering.

But I worry that a lot of the things I hear on guidance belittle the place of God’s revealed word in the whole process. The apostle Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy that the Bible is “inspired by God” and said that this means that it “is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16) Doesn’t that mean that if we want to find out how God wants us to make decisions, how He guides us, that we should look first and foremost in the Bible?

Yes it does, but there is also a great danger of taking this the wrong way entirely as well. Finding information on guidance in the Bible doesn’t mean that there is going to be in its pages a simple, text-book like answer to every question. When my wife and I decided to get married all those years ago we didn’t look up a passage in the Bible that said, “God wants D.A.D. to agree to marry Warren Bird”.

Nor does it mean that we can lift any verse out of its context and interpret it as telling us something about a decision that we are facing. I heard of a young man once who tried to use the Bible like that.

He randomly opened it at a page and with his eyes closed let his finger pick out a verse on that page. He got to Matthew 27:5 in this fashion: “Judas went and hanged himself.” That’s not real helpful, he thought, so he repeated the process and ended up selecting Luke 10:37: “Go and do likewise.”

Sounds funny, but there are many Christians who treat the Bible just like that – I know, I was one of them when I was a young Christian.

Paul also wrote to Timothy that he should “be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a workman who is not ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15) I could preach a whole sermon on what “correctly handling the word of truth” involves. The key thing to get across tonight is that understanding any one verse requires understanding the message of the whole Bible and that understanding what the Bible is saying about my life individually requires prayerful meditation and reflection. That way we can ensure that we are not imposing what WE want or think on what God is really saying to us.

A model of guidance

What, then, DOES the Bible say about how God guides us? I think that our reading from Colossians gives us a terrific outline of the answer to this question. There are three parts to the answer:

1) Keep your eyes on the prize.

2) Keep your feet on the path.

3) Keep your heart at peace with Christ.

• Eyes on the prize (Col 3:1-4)

Ultimately, God’s guidance relates to the way that He takes us from being sinners who do not know Him to living eternally in heaven with Him. God cares about every detail of our lives here and now, because He wants to help us to negotiate the path tp heaven that we set out on when we become Christians; it is the impact that each decision we make has upon that objective that is of most importance to Him.

This is a constant theme in the New Testament. Paul elsewhere wrote that personally he was pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called him heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14). Peter wrote that Christians should “live holy and godly lives”, looking forward to the day in which God will bring this world to an end and usher in the new heaven and the new earth, our new home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:11-13).

It’s also in Psalm 25 – verse 15 says, “my eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare.”

In Colossians Paul urges us to set our hearts and minds on the prize that awaits us when Christ returns in glory. Everything we do in our life now should be done with our eyes on the prize. When we are faced with decisions that have to be made, God’s guidance is that we choose things that will be positive for us spiritually, that will help us on our journey to our home of righteousness, rejecting choices that will hinder our journey.

The first principle of guidance is to keep our eyes on the prize.

• Feet on the path (Col 3:5-14)

Paul goes on to argue that if we are heading in the direction of heaven then we should actually walk on the path that takes that us in that direction. The attitudes and behaviours that we have turned away from when we decided to become Christians should be left behind and the attitudes and behaviours of “God’s chosen people” should be the ones that we adopt.

Let’s be clear – no one is a Christian because they live a moral life. Being a Christian means you are an immoral person who knows they are immoral and has asked God’s forgiveness through Christ. But someone who has been forgiven is now heading for a new home of righteousness, as Peter called heaven, and thus right living is a logical, natural outworking of the relationship we have with Jesus. So when you are seeking God’s guidance, a significant place to look is in those passages of the Bible that talk about His moral will.

When you are faced with a choice between something that is morally wrong and something that is morally right, then God’s guidance for you is unambiguous – choose the thing that is right. Sometimes it won’t be easy, especially when it is a decision that has effects on other people, who might fight back or take some sort of retaliatory action against us. But be clear that God will only ever guide you to decide something that is morally right.

As Psalm 25 says, “may integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in You.” (Ps 25:18)

There was a lot of news about lying, cheating and fraud in some of America’s biggest companies. The first of those companies to be found out was Enron and the whistle blower was an employee of Enron who knew that the financial accounts were a fabrication. She is a Christian woman and she realized that keeping her feet on the path required her to be honest about what was going on at Enron. It has cost her a lot – she lost her job and has been ridiculed and verbally abused by the men that she exposed – but she is able to stand before her God in all good conscience, which is far better.

The second principle of guidance is to make decisions that keep our feet on the path of life.

• Hearts at peace with Christ (Col 3:15-17)

The third and final principle is to make decisions based upon Christ’s peace ruling in our hearts. This isn’t talking about a subjective feeling of being “at peace” about a decision. Rather it is talking about the peace that we know in our hearts and souls when our daily lives are in tune with the friendship that we have with Jesus.

A lot of it comes from the fact that thankfulness is a significant part of our relationship with God. Can you thank God for the decision that you have made? Can you stand before other Christians and say that you have made a decision that expresses your gratitude to God for what He has done in your life? That you are at peace with God after making the decision? If you can, then it is a decision that you can truly say resulted from following God’s guidance.

Working it Out

You might be thinking about a decision you face at the moment in light of these three principles. It is possible that you might be thinking, “hey, wait a minute, those three things rule out some of the choices that I have but not all of them. I’m still in the dark about what God is guiding me to do. Should I go with option A, B or C?”

I want to say to you that in many, many instances there are going to be several choices that are ALL within the realm of God’s guidance. You might be looking for a new job; you rule out a couple of options because they contradict Biblical principles; but you still have a choice of 2 or 3 jobs left. A lot of people would keep fretting about not yet having received God’s guidance about what to do, but I want to tell you that in that case you really should be rejoicing! If God’s clear leading results in you having a couple of choices then there is nothing wrong with going with the one you’d prefer. God is your creator as well as you saviour, and if he made you with a liking for engineering instead of medicine, or labouring instead of office work, and there are no spiritual or moral reasons to favour one job over the other, then go with the one you’d like the best.

The apostle Paul has summed up the Bible’s teaching on guidance really well in Colossians 3:17 – “whatever you do, in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Everything we do is as a representative of God here on earth – we act in His name. When we have choices to make, let us make the ones that represent Him the best, the ones for which we can give Him thanks. We can’t go wrong if these are our guiding principles.

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In case you missed it, you can still watch all 4 main sessions from our 2018 Men’s Retreat (the sessions are powerful for anyone, men or women) at this link: http://theranch.org/2018-mens-retreat/. Topics include “Facing Your Fears” by Eric Elder, “Out of the Vortex (Breaking Addictions)” by Jefferson Williams, “5 Lies I Believed About Depression” by Kent Sanders, and “Going After Your Dreams” and “Why Everyone Should Consider Writing A Book” by Eric Elder and Kent Sanders.

Also, you can watch a church service anytime this week at this link:
 http://live.eastview.church.

LISTENING FOR GOD

by Alan Tison

1 Samuel 3:1-10

How do we hear the voice of God, Samuel’s life emulates 4 traits we should have in order to listen to the call of God

The following are actual bloopers found in church bulletins.

· The scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items for recycling. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

· Next Sunday’s Message – WHAT IS HELL, come early and hear our choir

· Weight watchers meeting Tuesday; please use large double doors at the side entrance.

· Ushers will eat newcomers

· Remember to pray for the many people who are sick of our church and the community.

· Our minister is on vacation; massages can be given to the secretary.

· This being Easter Sunday, Mrs. Johnson will lay an egg on the piano.

· The flowers on the altar are provided by Jason Edwards, the sin of Pastor and Mrs. Edwards.

Miscommunication it is all around us, we speak of it as a get out of jail free card” in our society – If we have a mishap, we call it miscommunication.

· Failure to Listen

· Out of the Loop

· Dad I did not hear you

· Mom, you want to clean the WHOLE room.

MISCOMMUNICATION

Through out the Bible God communicated with his creation in a number of ways.

· Dreams

· A Burning Bush

· Prophets

· Animals

· Miraculous signs

Through this God teaches us he is not limited to one way of communication.

Heb 1:1-2

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

When God communicates with his creation, he does it in such a way as that one is assured God is speaking.

In 1 Sam. 3, we discover a young man who hears God voice and yet does not recognize him to be God. Yet after some prompting he soon learns to be a great listener for God.

COULD WE BE LIKE SAMUEL?

· Would we fail to recognize God’s voice?

· Do we need someone prompting us so that we might be able to listen?

· A better question today, What qualities in Samuel’s life made him able to hear the voice of God?

IN 1 SAMUEL 3 WE DISCOVER 4 QUALITIES IN SAMUEL’S LIFE WORTH EMULATING TODAY.

1. Samuel had a servant’s heart.  His role, Ministering before the Lord

Jewish historian, Josephus states Samuel was 12 years old at the time of his calling.

His tasks were to light the candles, tend to the furnishings and general housekeeping in the Tabernacle.

These were not the “glory jobs” of the Tabernacle, but none the less they had to be done.

Compare this to Eli’s sons – They grew up in the Tabernacle, saw their father administer the worship – But in 1 Sam. 2:12 Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.

WHAT A CONTRAST Growing up in the same house, watching the same man (Eli), observing the same sacred items – yet two different outcomes.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY CHILDREN GROWING UP IN THE CHURCH REJECT THE CHURCH LATER ON IN LIFE? After all we have a promise Prov 22:6, Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

– PARENTS ROLE, Hannah prayed for her son (2:20) Hannah monitored her Son’s grow (2:19) Hannah and her husband were faithful in worship (1:21)

– Eli, knew his son’s sin (2:22) He was willing to confront their sins (2:23-25)

– THE CHILD’S ROLE – The attitude of the sons – Eli’s, No regard, Samuel, Servant hood

• There comes a time when children must take responsibility for their actions, Now if we will keep this two step approach of a Parent’s active role and a child’s submissive attitude, we will be able to claim the promise of Prov. 22.

2. Samuel had a good reputation

1 Sam 2:26

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.

These are the same words used to describe Jesus in Luke 2:52

Why is our reputation so important? Simply put how people see us is how they see God. – Our actions reflect our leader.

That is why Jesus had such trouble with the Pharisees, they were representatives of God and yet their reputation for ritual and rules had become a departure of God’s grace.

Reputations must be formed, a reputation is not formed in one day, but it can be destroyed in one minute. A reputation cannot be passed on from one generation to the next but it can be destroyed in a relatively short time. A reputation is formed by living a consistent life before God

Billy Graham was one of the most respected men in the world today, with the many scandals that have come about in the last 20 years; Graham remained untarnished – WHY? Graham’s 3 laws of integrity

– He never was the first person to enter a hotel room

– He never ate dinner with a woman other than his wife

• He never was in a car alone with a woman other than his wife.

Samuel is an example of how a good reputation makes one available to be used by.

3. Samuel was obedient to authority.

3 times he thought he heard what he thought was the voice of Eli, and 3 times he went to see what his mentor wanted.

Obedience is an unnatural response. Few of us enjoy being told what to do. Our natural response is to be in control. Yet where there is control there is an absence of humility.

THIS IS WHEN PRIDE TAKES OVER – Don Shula, Former head coach of the Miami Dolphins tells of a vacation he was taking in Maine during the off season. He wanted to go some place where he go and relax without people recognizing he and his wife. When they arrived at their resort, it was raining so they decided to go to a movie in town. When they arrived at the Theater the house lights were on and he was surprised how small the crowd was for the movie. Yet when he walked in he was surprised to receive a round of applause from the patrons. They took their seat and waited for the movie to start. Secretly surprised, Shula leaned over to his wife and whispered, I guess there is not a place I can go where I am not recognized. I guess not she replied with a bit of sarcasm. About that time a man came over and with a friendly smile shook hands with Shula and his wife. Shula said I am surprised you know us. Should I know you the man asked? We are just glad you came in the manager said he would start the film until 10 people came in.

Samuel was obedient because he was humble.

Signs of Obedience

– Understand God is good – he has our best interest in hand.

– Submit to his authority – God is in control, Good Friday to Easter

• Realize there are benefits to ObedienceObedience in the good times – OT Promise of faithfulness, Moses, Joshua, Josiah

Obedience in hardships – Wilderness Wanderings

Obedience is the key to our salvation – are we willing to do what Jesus asks?

Even though Samuel was not receiving answers from Eli, He continued to be obedient to his mentor. In like manner we must always find our obedience in the Lord – EVEN WHEN HE DOES NOT ANSWER!

Obedience must be lived out

Of the Fiery Furnace

Dan 3:16-18

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.

18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

When we are obedient we are able to hear his voice – even in silence.

4. Samuel was willing to listen.

Eli realizing Samuel was being called by God now gives him a series of instructions to prepare for God’s call.

NOTICE THE INSTRUCTIONS

• Go back to your room – waiting, Have you ever been in God’s waiting room? Waiting to be used, waiting for an answer to prayer? WAITING PREPARES US

• If he calls you again – Anticipation, carries with it the idea of expectation. A young minister was distraught by the lack of results in his new church after his first few months of service. He visited D.L. Moody for some advice. Moody asked, “Do you expect decisions ever Sunday, when you preach? The young man replied. There is your problem – You Should.

• I am amazed the number of people who do not expect God to do great things. We pray and prayers are answered and we say it is a coincidence. We put God first in our finances and then when our needs are met we seem shocked. 1 Cor 2:9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” Each week I hope you anticipate God working in your life.

• Answer His Call – Be available, this may seem so simple, but it can be difficult to answer God’s call. So many things call out for our attention.

• Samuel did answer the call notice his words – SPEAK FOR YOUR 

• SERVANT IS LISTENING, I imagine those are some of the sweetest words the lord can hear from our mouth.

I don’t know what you want to do with me BUT SPEAK FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

I don’t know how I can help BUT SPEAK FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

I am concerned about the future BUT SPEAK FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

When Samuel made himself available he was ready to receive God’s instructions

Listening for God requires…

1. a servant’s heart

2. a good reputation

3. an obedience to authority

4. And the ability to be ready to listen.

Jesus himself used an illustration of listen for the voice of God in

John 10:1-5

1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.

3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Who are you listening for today, who is calling your name, and what is your reply?

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Special Note from Eric: Need a boost in your faith? Join us NEXT WEEKEND, LIVE ONLINE OR IN-PERSON, for a men’s retreat where I’ll be speaking on “Facing Your Fears,” and my friends Jefferson Williams and Kent Sanders will be speaking on “Breaking Addictions” and “5 Lies I Believed About Depression.” We’ll also have inspirational times of worship with my friend, Travis Johnson.

Join us LIVE ONLINE (for free!) starting Friday, October 12 at 7 p.m. Central Time at http://live.theranch.org, or register to attend IN-PERSON (for a small fee for food and lodging) here.

You can also watch a live, Sunday morning church service TODAY at 9 and 11 a.m. Central Time (or on-demand anytime thereafter) at this link: http://live.eastview.church.

DEFEATING DEPRESSION

by Kevin Burden

Loneliness has been called the most desolate word in the English language. It is no respecter of age, race, economic status, or intelligence. Albert Einstein once said, “It is strange to be known so universally, and yet to be so lonely.”

God made us for intimacy and companionship with others. Even before sin entered the world, He declared that “it is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). That’s why many people often feel so empty inside.

Jesus experienced loneliness. He felt it when His disciples deserted Him (Mark 14:50). The Father’s presence more than compensated for this, however. He said, “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32).

Intimacy with God is available to all who put their trust in Christ – John 14:16-23.

We can reduce our feelings of loneliness by reaching out to others. But even more important, we must reach out to the Lord. He is always with us, and He wants us to fellowship with Him throughout the day.

A recent Gallop poll concludes 4 out of 10 Americans admit to frequent feelings of intense loneliness and depression. Has loneliness ever crept into your life? What does the Bible say to those who are going through those dark times?

Difficult times came to many in the Bible. Just two examples…

Elijah needed rest after his encounter with the Prophets of Baal.

Paul in his letter to Timothy said, “Everyone has deserted me” three different times. His way of coping was to ask for his parchments and his friends.

Charles Spurgeon was prone to times of deep sadness and depression. On an unforgettable Sunday morning in 1866, the great C. H. Spurgeon stunned his five thousand listeners when from the pulpit of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle he announced, “I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever gets to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.” For some of his audience it was incomprehensible that the world’s greatest preacher could know the valley of despair. Yet twenty-one years later in 1887 he said from the same pulpit, “Personally I have often passed through the dark valley.”

The fact is – many “Good” Christians battle depression. Most of us face situational depression at some time. There are times in life when depression is a normal response to a difficult situation…

* The death of a loved one

* A disappointment in life

* Failure in some area of your life

* Relational problems

• Some battle biological factors

Depression Can be Devastating: The Psalmist felt many things during time of loneliness.

* God seemed far away – v 2.

* Life seemed meaningless – v 3

* His bones burned; He just didn’t feel well – v 3

* He experienced loss of appetite and weight loss – v 4

* He felt alone – v 6

* Felt persecuted and rejected –v 8

* Experienced times of sadness and tears – v 9

* He was painfully aware of his failures – v 10

• He felt tossed aside – v 10

Does this sound like some of the things you have experienced in life? 

How do we defeat Depression? Start by…

#1. TURNING OFF THE TUNNEL VISION – v 3-10.

Depression often occurs when we focus on the circumstances surrounding a situation instead of the situation surrounding the circumstance. We become unable to see “the forest for the trees.”

In these times we must learn to dwell on the Lord’s goodness b not our pain.

#2. SURRENDER TO GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY – v 12-15.

God is in charge. He knows where you are and what you’re going through.

He knows what he is doing b even if we don’t. We must learn to trust God.

God perfects us by means of the furnace.

#3. CONCENTRATE ON GOD’S CHARACTER – v 17-22

#4. FOCUS ON THE FUTURE – v 16, 23-28.

Look past the present. God is preparing a great place for those who trust Him.

As we reach the end of Psalm 102 we see the darkness lifted.

Are you prone to deep darkness? Is it a powerful emotion that you seem powerless to change? Are you trusting God or are you trying to make it on your own?

If your depression will not go away; If you trust, and pray and nothing changes…

You may need to see a Doctor. Overcoming depression can be hindered by chemical imbalance, diet or other physical complications.

You may need to see a Christian counselor.Overwhelming, overpowering thoughts of harming yourself or others; Overwhelming, overpowering thoughts of suicide are not acceptable conditions. You must seek help immediately.

Understand what is happening; then take charge of your mind. Don’t deny the emotion . . . face it!

Here are some practical steps for defeating Depression. . . .

* Get some rest – like Elijah

* Ponder God’s Character and love – like Jesus

* Make extra time to study God’s Word – like Paul

• Spend extra time with your Christian friends and church family – like Paul.

These are usually the opposite of what you feel like doing. But take control!

Minirith/Meier Christian Counseling:

“Seven laws for living life free of Depression.”

1. Commit yourself to the purpose of glorifying God in all things.

2. Spend time daily meditating on God’s Word and applying it to your life.

3. Deal with grudges and anger daily.

4. Concentrate on building close relationships with your family.

5. Develop solid Christian friendships and spend time each week enjoying these people.

6. Be involved in a daily routine that brings personal satisfaction to you.

7. Do something nice for one special person each week.

Watch Here! | Listen Here! | Ask for Prayer | Contact Us | Visit Our Website | Subscribe | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Bookstore

As a reminder: Starting this month, in addition to our regular Sunday sermons, we’re going to be featuring an online church service that you can watch live at 10 or 11 a.m. (Central Time) or on-demand throughout the week at this link: http://live.eastview.church.

Also, if you need prayer or someone to talk to, you can chat live with our online hosts between 9 and noon on Sunday mornings at the same link. Join us today for some rich worship, biblical teaching, and an online chat!

Why The Holy Spirit Does Not Give Into Our Whims, but Helps to Bring Out God’s Best in Us and Teaches Us to Love What is Difficult

by Paul Fritz

Rom. 8:26-28

People need people. Laurie was about three when one night she requested my aid in getting undressed. I was downstairs and she was upstairs, and … well. “You know how to undress yourself,” I reminded. “Yes,” she explained, ’but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they do know how to do things by themselves.”
-William C. Schultz, Bits & Pieces, December 1990.

1. The Holy Spirit wisely chooses to not give in to our selfish whims because He knows what is best. Paul wrote, “God works all things together for good for those who love God and those who are called according to His purposes.” (Rom. 8:28) The Spirit of God works to conform us more to the thinking, behavior and character qualities that are found in Christ Jesus. Ask the Lord to help you surrender more of the control of your desires to the leading of the Spirit.

2. The Holy Spirit listens to our cries, but selectively responds to the prayers that are in conformity with the will of God for our lives. The Spirit acts as our advocate to the Father, but acts only according to the will of God. The Spirit has a way of filtering out requests that are not in agreement with scriptural truth. Paul wrote, “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Rom. 8:27) Ask the Lord to help you pray more in line with all of the scriptural passages, promises, and principles.

3. The Holy Spirit makes us competent to do whatever God calls us to accomplish. Paul wrote, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Cor. 3:5,6) Thank the Lord for all the ways He has made you competent to perform every aspect of His will of your life.

4. The Holy Spirit filters out some of our requests that are not in the perfect will of God. Paul wrote, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Rom. 8:26) Ask the Lord to help monitor your requests so that the Lord answers only the prayers that are in line with 100% of the perfect will of God.

5. The Holy Spirit has a way of amplifying the requests that will facilitate our maturity in Christ. Paul wrote, “The Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Rom. 8:26) The Spirit continues to remind us of the prayers that will best help bring us to higher levels of personal, spiritual and ministry maturity. Ask the Lord to help you record your prayers and answers to prayers enabling you to see where God is blessing.

6. The Holy Spirit is hindered from helping to answer the prayers of those who are habitually living with secret sins. David wrote, “If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Psa. 66:18) Ask the Lord to help you uncover any secret sins so that you can confess and forsake them.

7. The Holy Spirit is more concerned about obedience and trust than in giving us what we desire. John wrote, “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” (I John 3:24) Whenever you are not seeing answers to prayer, it may be necessary to evaluate how obedient and trusting you are in the Lord. Ask the Lord to show you if there is any false way in your heart so that you can become all that the Lord wants you to be.

8. The Holy Spirit cautions us against hardening our hearts to the Lord in any way. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “So, as the Holy Spirit says, ’Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. (Heb. 3:7; Psa. 95:7-11; Ex. 17:7) Ask the Lord to help you be more tender hearted to the Lord’s correction and rebukes.

9. The Holy Spirit wants us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Paul wrote, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Eph. 6:18) Ask the Lord to help you pray in harmony with the Spirit’s mind, will and emotions with everyone of your prayers and requests.

10. The Holy Spirit does not want anyone to hear God without really listening and responding to Him. Paul said, “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet: ’Go to this people and say, ’You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.” (Acts 28:25-27) Ask the Lord to help you avoid any tendency to be insensitive to God’s word, His voice or His counselors.

11. The Holy Spirit wants us to realize that many of our desires are contrary to God’s will. Paul wrote, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal 5:16,17) Ask the Lord for help in conforming more of your will to the Father’s will.

There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.  -Clare Boothe Luce.

Watch Here! | Listen Here! | Ask for Prayer | Contact Us | Visit Our Website | Subscribe | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Bookstore

As a reminder: Starting this month, in addition to our regular Sunday sermons, we’re going to be featuring an online church service that you can watch live at 9 or 11 a.m. (Central Time) or on-demand throughout the week at this link: http://live.eastview.church.

Also, if you need prayer or someone to talk to, you can chat live with our online hosts between 9 and noon on Sunday mornings at the same link. Join us today for some rich worship, biblical teaching, and an online chat!

A FAMILY RESEMBLANCE

by Terry Sisney
 
Ge 1:26 Ge 5:1

We say we belong to the family of God, My question is can the world see the resemblance.

It’s interesting sometimes to go to a family reunion or family get together and to look around at the different people and try to determine whose children they are by their characteristics, or features.(Sometimes it’s very evident, unmistakable, undeniable) then other times it’s less evident.

As Believers we have been born again by the spirit of God into the family of God, We have a new blood line, We are the children of God.

I’m talking about a family resemblance:

Now are we the sons of God.

1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

1Jo 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

I know it’s hard to take it in, but by virtue of the new birth you and I are as much the sons of God as Jesus himself.

In fact he calls us his brethren, (his brothers, sisters, mothers)

Mt 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

When you see a branch of an apple tree, loaded down with apples, you have no difficulty distinguishing it’s identity.

There is no wondering if perhaps it’s a grapefruit tree that it’s connected to, or an orange tree, (No the branch takes on the same character as the tree) It has a family resemblance.

Jesus said: I am the vine ye are the branches.

My concern is that in the hour that we live in, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish what family we belong to.

The Church is becoming more worldly, more comfortable with sin, we laugh at the things that used to make us cry.

What used to break our hearts now gets passed off by saying ( it’s just the times we’re in).

My friends the truth is, you can dress it up anyway you want to and call it good.

But Jesus said the tree is known by it’s fruit.

If the fruit is rotten the tree is rotten, You can’t have a rotten tree and good fruit, (it may look good, and it may sound good) but look at the fruit.

Let me take it a step farther (There are only two families)

(#1) The family of God (#2) The family of the devil

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

1Jo 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

In the natural many times people will attribute a certain characteristic or personality trait to their bloodline.

(Bad Temper)

(grudge holding, self pity, critical, prejudice, untrustworthy,) it’s in the blood, That’s the way his Grandpa was and his daddy – the poor kid didn’t have a chance.

Sometimes they will say the same thing about certain sicknesses or diseases, (well it’s in the blood line)

(Family Resemblance)

But as a new creature in Christ Jesus we have a new bloodline, and This bloodline doesn’t have any homosexuality in it, it doesn’t have any prejudice or self pity, or bad temper in it, It doesn’t have any sugar diabetes, or heart disease or cancer or any other disease in it.

(Are you following me? I’m talking about a family resemblance)

You won’t find adultery or fornication or Drug addiction, or wife abuse or child abuse.

In this bloodline.

Too many times Christians want to excuse wrong behavior by saying: I can’t help it it’s just my nature,

(No sir)

The Christian cannot use that excuse because he has got a new nature, and he has a new bloodline,

We cannot say: I really am a good tree, you just have to overlook my bad fruit,

(No sir) If the tree is good there will be a family resemblance, we are going to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, the fruit of the spirit,

We’re going to look like our daddy.

And we’re going to think like our daddy, and act like our daddy.

Eph 5:1 Be ye therefore followers = (Imitators) of God, as dear children;

There is a supernatural side to this family: We should be contending for everything that he gave us in this new birth.

Power, power to heal the sick, power to cast out devils, The gifts of the spirit.

(Talking about a family resemblance) Jesus said: The works that I do shall ye do also and greater works than these shall ye do.

I wonder does the world see a family resemblance in us?

When they look at us can they see Jesus, When we speak can they hear Jesus?

If I was on trial for being Wayne Sisney’s son, I would be convicted, the resemblance is undeniable, indisputable, in fact people who have known my dad for years will call me Wayne, because we look so much alike.

If we were on trial for being Sons of God, is there enough family resemblance to convict us?

The fact is: (We are) every day we are on trial before the world, do they see a family resemblance to your heavenly father and your brother Jesus Christ?

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As a reminder: Starting this month, in addition to our regular Sunday sermons, we’re going to be featuring an online church service that you can watch live at 9 or 11 a.m. (Central Time) or on-demand throughout the week at this link: http://live.eastview.church.

Also, if you need prayer or someone to talk to, you can chat live with our online hosts between 9 and noon on Sunday mornings at the same link. Join us today for some rich worship, biblical teaching, and an online chat!

HEALING

by Tim Zingale

Luke 8:26-39

“Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. And as he stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” Luke 8:26-39, RSV.

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

Once there was a very wealthy young man who lived in a great, elaborate house with dozens of rooms. Each room was more comfortable and more beautiful than the one before it.

One day he decided to invite the Lord to come and stay with him.

When the Lord arrived, this young man offered Him the very best room in the house. The room was upstairs and at the end of the hall. “This room is yours, Jesus, stay as long as you like and you can do whatever you want to in this room. Remember Jesus, it’s all yours.”

“Thank you,” the Lord replied, and with that the man shut the door and went about his business.

That evening, after he had retired for the night, there came a loud knocking at the front door. The young man pulled on his robe and made his way downstairs. When he opened the door he found that the Devil had sent three of his demons to attack the man! He quickly tried to close the door but one of the demons kept sticking his foot in the door.

Sometime later, after a great struggle, he managed to slam the door shut and returned to his room totally exhausted. “Can you believe that?” the young man thought. “Jesus is upstairs in my very best room sleeping while I am down here battling demons. Oh well, maybe he just didn’t hear.”

The young man slept fitfully that night. The next day, things went along as normal and, being as tired as he was, the young man retired early that evening. Along about midnight, there came such a terrible ruckus at the front door that the young man was sure that whatever it was would tear the door down. He stumbled down the stairs once again and opened the door to find that there were dozens of demons now trying to get into his beautiful home.

For more than 3 hours he fought and struggled against the demons from

hell and finally overtook them enough to shut the door against their attack. All energy seemed to fail him. “I really don’t understand this at all. Why won’t the Lord come to my rescue? Why does he allow me to fight all by myself? I feel so alone.”

Troubled, he found his way to the sofa and fell into a restless sleep.

The next morning he decided to inquire of the Lord about the happenings of the last two evenings. Quietly, he made his way to the elegant bedroom where he had left Jesus. “Jesus,” he called as he tapped at the door. “Lord, I don’t understand what is happening. For the last two nights I have had to fight the demons away from my door while you were sleeping. Don’t you care about me? Did I not give you the very best room in my house?”

He could see the tears building in Jesus’ eyes but continued on. “I just don’t understand. I really thought that once I invited you in to live with me, that you would take care of me, and I gave you the best room in my house and everything. What more can I do?”

“My precious child,” Jesus spoke softly, “I do love and care for you. I protect all that you have released into my care. But when you invited me to come here and stay, you brought me to this lovely room and you shut the door to the rest of the house. I am Lord of this room but I am not Master of this house. I have protected this room and no demon may enter here.”

“Oh Lord, please forgive me. Take all of my house, it is yours! I am so sorry that I never offered you all to begin with. I want you to have control of everything! With this he flung open the bedroom door and knelt at Jesus’ feet. “Please forgive me. Lord. for being so selfish.”

Jesus smiled and told him that He had already forgiven him and that He would take care of things from now on.

Along about midnight the banging on the door was frightening. The young man slipped out of his room in time to see Jesus going down the stairs.

He watched in awe as Jesus swung open the door. Satan stood at the door demanding to be let in. “What do you want, Satan?” the Lord asked. The devil bowed low in the presence of the Lord. “So sorry, I seem to have gotten the wrong address.” With that, he and the demons all ran away.

Our opening story reminds us that Jesus wants control of our whole lives. And this is seen very dramatically in our gospel lesson.

A man had demons and Jesus came to him and demanded that those demons leave. This man surrendered to Jesus and the demons left.

Notice he did not have to ask Jesus to have the demons leave, Jesus acted on His own accord. The only request that was made was made by the demon itself, Legion asked that they not be put into the abyss, but to enter the swine and Jesus agreed. But the swine being filled with the demons rushed down the bank into the river and were drown.

The man, now free from the demons, sat at the feet of Jesus and we can just imagine that Jesus was explaining to him who he was, the Son of God.

Then the people from the city came and were afraid of Jesus because of the miracle he had performed and asked him to leave.

Isn’t that typical? If you don’t understand something, you become afraid and then blame not yourself, but the person responsible.

When I was in the senior year of college, I began applying for teaching jobs. It was later that In entered seminary, but I graduated from college with a BA in elementary education. I had an interview on campus with a superintendent of a school system. It was a good interview and at the end he offered me a job teaching 4th graders. But he said that the school board would have to approve, but thought that would be no problem.

I left feeling confident that I had a job. My wife and I were engaged at the time and we planning a wedding as soon as I graduated. I had told the superintendent that I was going to my wife’s family for the weekend and he could contact me there with the final approval.

The phone rang, I answered and the superintendent told me that I did not get the job. He said the school board did not want some one like me teaching their kids.

His exact words were: “We don’t want someone like that teaching our kids”

Someone like what?

For he explained to them that I wore a long leg brace and used a cane for walking and they were afraid of my disability and would not hire me.

I later found a teaching job and my disability did not matter one bit in the classroom.

But isn’t that typical, if we don’t understand something we blame the person not our selves for our ignorance or bigotry.

The people of Jesus day did not understand what He had done, did not understand that He was the Son of God, did not understand that Jesus had just made this man whole. What they saw they could not believe, so they became frighten and demanded that Jesus leave.

But the man, who was now whole, understood and wanted to go with Jesus. He had in his demon state surrendered to Jesus and now in his healed state he once again surrendered himself, his whole self to Jesus.

Jesus understood, but wanted the man to stay behind and convince the people to not be afraid of Jesus’ power but to surrender to it as he had.

Jesus wanted this man to help the people to begin to heal, to be delivered from their “demon” of fear and misunderstanding. He wanted the man to help the people to surrender their “whole house” to Jesus not just one room, but everything.

Healing comes to us in various ways. Some experience “a miracle”, some are given the power of courage and strength to endure their situation. Others are released from their personality traits that keep them from truly experiencing the healing power of Jesus.

When this post polio syndrome hit me and I had to leave the ministry because of being in a wheelchair, not being able to talk well enough to preach, and because I did not have the stamina to do more than every day activities, I was really angry. Angry at God, I guess for allowing this to happen, angry that I had to endure another “disability” in my life, angry that I had to give up something that I truly enjoyed and thought I was called to do.

Finally, after much screaming at God, soul searching, and finally being able to just surrender this whole situation to God, some peace and comfort came into my life.

I had to allow Jesus into everyone room even the room of anger and what I saw as the unfairness of live.

When He entered that room finally, I felt at peace with myself and this terrible situation. That peace allowed me to develop this Internet ministry to share my sermons with you even though I do not have a congregation of my own. I enjoy preaching and this is one way for me to continue that even though I am still experiencing all the manifestations of this post polio syndrome.

Healing comes when we open all the rooms in our “house” to Jesus and He can work his power in our lives.

Amen.

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Special Note from Eric: Starting this week, in addition to our regular Sunday sermons, we’re going to be featuring an online church service that you can watch live at 9 or 11 a.m. (Central Time) or on-demand throughout the week at this link: http://live.eastview.church.

Also, if you need prayer or someone to talk to, you can chat live with our online hosts between 9 and noon on Sunday mornings at the same link. Join us today for some rich worship, biblical teaching, and an online chat!

PRAISE

by George Rennau

Isaiah 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Psalm 107:8 “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”

Rev. 3:15 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold or hot, I would thou wert cold or hot”.

The Bible expresses that God has created us to praise the Lord, the scripture also tells us that God desires that we would recognize his works and that we would give him the credit for it in our life.

PRAISE IS NOT JUST SOME ASPECT OF CHURCH THAT MEN THOUGHT UP.

It is a divinely ordained unconditional expression on our part that if practiced by us

— will draw us closer to God

— and according to scripture it will draw God closer to us.

Ps 22:3

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

The purpose of my message is to encourage us to praise the Lord that we might enjoy the benefits and pleasure of this aspect of our worship toward God.

And I want to deal with this subject by asking the question What is Praise?

Prayer

I. What is Praise?

1. Praise by definition is: “an expression of approval or commendation; applause”

• it is getting hilariously excited

I will never forget being at the high school football game.  We had decided to go to the last game of the season, and in the fourth quarter there was a 70 yard conversion for a touch down.

Do you know what happened

We are a people formed to give praise,

We know how to give praise.

And people including me went wild

-we use words
-clap
-we smile
-cheer
-we even become FANATICAL.

OH THAT WE COULD GET AS EXCITED ABOUT GOD AS WE DO ABOUT FOOTBALL

2. The Bible tells us the manner in which we should show our praise to God!

None of these ways include reserved silence.  There is a times for silent meditation.  Meditation is a different aspect of our life with God,  Meditation is not praise…

EXPRESSING YOUR PRAISE INCLUDES

Clapping — Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands all ye people, shout unto God with a voice of triumph”.

Lifting up your hands — Psalm 134:2 “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord”.  (That doesn’t sound like a suggestion.)

Singing – Psalm 100:2 — “come before him with Joyful song”

Ephesians 5:18-20 “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord”

Verbal Praise – Psalm 100 “Shout for Joy all the earth, worship the Lord with gladness.

Praise is an expression of approval, commendation, and applause to God.

Isaiah 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Psalm 107:8 “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men”

II. Thanksgiving to God for blessings received and the reporting of those blessings to others

1. The testimony of God’s goodness toward you should be an unceasing proclamation.

Isaiah 62:6 “I have posted watchmen on the walls., o Jerusalem they will never be silent day or night, You who call on the Lord give yourselves no rest”.

When my father in law pastored in Nebraska. There was an old fellow — who had been kicked in the head by a mule as a small boy. One day he received Christ.

His regular testimony was “we just can’t thank him enough”  And he was right also

b. Praise for What God is doing in your life should be shared in the home.

Mark 5:19 (demon possessed man) “go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  Our faith and testimony needs to go beyond, Sunday morning.

c. Our testimony and Thanksgiving to God should be proclaimed in the assembly.

Ephesians 5:19 “Speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

Thirdly praise is…a response of faith toward his precious promises.

I believe in positive confession.

• If his promise to heal you is true then you need to thank and praise him for it.

• If you believe his promise to deliver you is true then you need to thank and praise him for it.

• If you trust him to guide you then you need to thank and praise him for it.
• If you believe he can perform a miracle in your finances -then you need to thank and praise him for it.

Rather then praising God for the answer even before it comes What many Christians do when faced with one of God’s promises is to grow discouraged, start to doubt, they begin to disbelieve — and miss the blessing.

A poet wrote…
We mutter and sputter
We fume and we spurt
We mumble and Grumble
Our feelings get hurt
We can’t understand things
Our vision grows dim
When all that we need
Is a moment with him

Hebrew 11 says: that with out faith it is impossible to please God and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him  Praise is an expression of your faith and without that in your life it is impossible to please God.  But when you praise him and trust him, and believe him he will reward you.

In order to begin experiencing the blessing God has for you in this discipline of Praise you have to climb the mountain for we are in the position of travelers who after surveying a great mountain and after traveling around it and observing how it dominates the landscape, and observing its features and the landscape around it, now must approach it directly, for the intention of climbing it.

In other words, if we are ever going to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.

Isaiah 43:21 “This people have I formed for myself; that they may proclaim my praise”

We just have to go for it.

Rev. 3:15 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold or hot, I would thou wert cold or hot”.

This verse speaks of our life toward God.  God desires that we would be on fire for him and a people who are praising Jesus all the time.  Not cold and dismal and lifeless, but expressive and reverent toward Him. for he is the focus of our praise

There was an elderly Christian whose advancing years had taken their toll on her memory. As her health faded the time came that she could recite but a single verse (2 Timothy 1:12) “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto HIM against that day”.

Even these words slowly slipped away from her memory until only a few days of he life remained and friends would hear her repeat just seven words: ”that which I’ve committed unto him.”

Finally as the hour of the women’s death neared and her memory was all but gone.  She voiced a single word repeatedly, it was all she could remember.  HIM HIM HIM

Here is the key to our praise, when we come together to worship, when we are giving thanks in the presence of others, or when we are expressing our faith through praise let it all focus upon HIM.

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