Celebrate!
Are you ready to celebrate? The New Year is upon us, you may have already made your plans to celebrate. Maybe you are going to a party or perhaps just hanging out at home watching the ball drop in Times Square on t.v. Saturday night as the clock turns to midnight, ushering in yet another New Year. It is one of the natural times to celebrate.
Why not? You have good reason to celebrate, don’t you? Perhaps even more than the start of a new calendar (Vietnamese Bible verse wall calendars now available at Peace In Jesus!), you have ample reason to celebrate.
Quiz question: what chapter of the New Testament has the most references to celebrating? It is the big 3rd parable of the series of the “lost” in Luke 15. First comes
the lost sheep, then the lost coin, then the lost son; also called the “Waiting Father,” or Keller’s book on the subject: “The Prodigal God.” The emphasis isn’t on the son, but the lavish love exhibited by the Father. It is his call toward celebration that makes an impact as we understand God is rejoicing over us . . . over you. Consider these verses carefully:
Lu 15:23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
Lu 15:24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again;
he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Lu 15:29 But he answered his father,
‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you
and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me
even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
Lu 15:32 But we had to celebrate and be glad,
because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again;
he was lost and is found.’"
The devastation of sin is clearly pictured in this chapter; we were lost—utterly and completely due to the punishment for sin which we had deserved. But that is why Jesus came. Through Jesus complete mission—his sinless life and substitutionary death—we lost ones have been found! We were dead in our transgressions and sins, but now we have been made alive again through Christ—it is by grace we have been saved!
So let the celebrations commence! May this be the ultimate and true source of your celebrations, whatever form they may take. During this year and looking into the next, you may be thankful and celebrating special blessings. Work, successful business, health, restored family relationship, baptism, deliverance from temptation, special times together as an extended family, closer sibling relationship, new ability or area of service, special present, fun trip, love of someone special, beautiful scenery, meeting new people, or something else for which you are thankful and celebrating. Take a moment in personal thanks to God for these blessings.
At Peace In Jesus, we are especially thankful and celebrating some good news to help us share the Good News:
1) All our paperwork for financing went in to the Church Extension Fund (CEF—lending
arm of our church body) on December 6th. Due to several factors, they were unable
to complete the loan request by the drop dead date for purchase of the 1253 N. Cole
Rd. property by January 3, 2012. Therefore, an extension to January 13th was
drafted by the CEF office.
2) The seller of the Cole Property, Mountain West Bank, signed the extension on
December 27th.
3) Official approval of our loan request was received from the CEF office on December
28th! This means the loan will go through and the Cole property will become the
new home of Peace In Jesus!
4) We are thankful for a wonderful celebration of the birth of Jesus--standing room only and a smooth worship service clearly communicating the joy of the birth of the world's Savior!
5) On top of all these blessings, we had made a grant request of the Antioch Foundation of LaCrosse, WI. A grant of $50,000 was awarded toward the renovation of our new, more permanent church home as well as parsonage repair. A group from our sister congregations in Appleton, Wisconsin will be coming out in July to be involved with our outreach and re-roof the parsonage, replace the cedar fence, and other parsonage repair and maintenance.
Our celebration centers on God’s forgiveness in Christ—a celebration that will never end. Yet how great is the love God has lavished on us, that we are his dear children and his continuous showering of blessings at sometimes is overwhelming. We are celebrating this weekend—for all blessings great and small. God bless and keep you all and richly bless you in the New Year!
Have a blessed weekend!
--Pastor Dan